


You Say Good Morning When It's Midnight

by Kaiisan



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Genderfluid Character, Kei is androgynous/genderfluid, LawLu is in debate, Letters, Long Distance AU, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Online Relationship, Original Character(s), Relationship(s), Slow Build, Slow Romance, androgynous character, long distance, penpal au, penpals
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-19
Updated: 2017-07-15
Packaged: 2018-04-27 01:07:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 37,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5027824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaiisan/pseuds/Kaiisan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In order to make some extra credits, Zoro agrees to be penpals with a random stranger (one Sanji Black) from another country for three months as part of his College's project with it's sister College. What he doesn't expect is to meet someone he could see himself falling in love with. There's a whole lot of problems that would make things difficult for Zoro and Sanji's growing relationship; and, well, the 8 hour time difference doesn't help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Extra Curricular Activities

**Author's Note:**

> Yoooo I've been dwelling on this Long Distance Prompt forever so here's my take on it!
> 
> Timezones explantion:
> 
> Imagine a Diamond: North Blue is the top point, South Blue the bottom, East is right West is left etc. Since we know Sanji's from North Blue, he lives there. Since we DON'T know where Zoro's from, I'm making it West Blue. That makes Sanji about 8 hours ahead of Zoro.  
> Zoro's time Midnight  
> Sanji's time 8am  
> OTHER THAN THAT ITS A MODERN SETTING. More in the end notes.
> 
> Another note: I don't particularly see any of the crew that I'd make be BFFs with Sanji for some reason, hence the OC Kei. Kei will be based loosely on myself (humour and personality wise) and also androgynous/genderfluid, since, honestly, I couldn't decide. I have transgender and androgynous friends in real life, I myself feel like I have a good understanding of it, however if you think I'm offending you by writing them in one way or another let me know, I'm not trying to offend anyone. I'm going by the definition "A person who does not fit neatly into the typical masculine and feminine gender roles of their society. Many androgynes identify as being mentally between woman and man. They may identify as "gender-neutral", "non-binary", or "gender fluid"."  
> I hope that isn't too Mary-Sue of me to do..

"Hey, Zoro! Did you get a letter from Shanks too?" Luffy called out excitedly as he strode into the classroom, a wrinkled piece of paper clutched in one hand.

"Sadly," Zoro rolled his eyes as his friend took a seat in the empty chair next to him. It was a little after one in the afternoon, and hardly anyone was around. "Not enough credits?"

"Nah, I have plenty, I just like signing up for fun stuff, so Shanks makes sure to tell me about the things that are interesting!" laughing in his ridiculous way, Luffy took out a notebook and a handful of coloured pens and started to doodle, whistling away. Zoro wondered if the reason why Luffy had enough credits was because of all the 'fun stuff' he signed up for.

There are a couple more students filing in over the next few minutes; it seems like there are a couple kids needing to up their credit score besides Zoro. He hoped Shanks would come soon; he had his last class of the day, Psychology, at 2pm and he quite liked it.

Usopp, surprisingly, arrived just as Shanks arrived in the door way, his curly hair flying loosely, and the teacher let him slide into the classroom. The long nosed teen took a seat just in front of Luffy, and after tying his curls back, the two of them shared an elaborate handshake.

"Right kiddos!" Shanks took a seat at his desk, reclining back in the chair. "You're all here because you're a few credits short of passing your term requirements, and your assignments just aren't gonna cover it. I know its just the first month of the college year, but it's best to get these things sorted as soon as possible, right?There are a few of these extra curricular classes you could've been selected to take; sign language, meditation, first aid, and so on; but it was decided between your teachers which class was best suited to your time tables."

Zoro nodded absent-mindedly. If he had the choice, he would have taken meditation or first aid, since he already took similar classes, but he supposed the point was to do something different.

"The class you've been selected to participate in is the Penpal Project!" Shanks announced happily as a few kids groaned audibly. "West Blue College, as you know, is one of several colleges under the main international college, Grand Line International Education. One of our sister colleges, North Blue, has agreed to collaborate with us and create a penpal project, where students from both colleges can send letters to each other, learning about each other using an old method of communication to establish bonds." Pulling a slip of paper out from the fold of his cape, which hid the stump of his left arm, he waved it about.

"Here's a list of participants from North Blue. Bonney, could you come and cut each name separate for me, and put them in the bowl on the front desk." He nodded to an empty student desk with a dark blue plastic bowl on it. A girl with long pastel pink hair quickly shoved the last of her sandwich in her mouth, before wiping her hands on her jeans and moving up to Shank's desk to retrieve the paper. She sat at the desk with the bowl, where she found scissors and began to cut.

"Now, all of you please write your name on a scrap of paper and place them in the red bowl in front of me," leaning back again, the red haired teacher began to hum as the students began to scribble.

Zoro frowned. His handwriting wasn't the best, and neither was his spelling, so he didn't like writing if he didn't have to. He glanced at Luffy, whose handwriting he knew to be like a child's. He hoped his penpal wouldn't mind.

He passed his scrap to Usopp, who took Luffy's piece too as he stepped up to go put his name in the bowl. Watching him, Zoro felt like he was in a movie he'd seen before.

A moment later, the bowl had been filled, and Bonney placed the blue bowl on Shank's desk as well.

"There's an equal amount of participants," Shanks warned,"so whoever you get, you're stuck with, okay?" He started to rummage in the red bowl, then picked out a name. That person came forward and stood next to his desk. He then selected a random name from the blue bowl, and after making a note of who got who, handed the student the name slip and a small card with the student's address on it. North Blue was a boarding college like theirs, so the addresses were of the dormitories the student stayed in.

"Luffy," Shanks called after a couple kids received theirs. With a loud screech Luffy stood hastily and practically ran to the front of the room, grabbing eagerly at the card he was given, then rushed to sit down again.

"Cool! It is a guy called Law! I wonder if he studies the law?" he exclaimed, then started to write hurriedly in his notebook with a bright red pen.

Usopp was next out of the trio. He wobbled over to Shanks nervously, and dropped the card the moment he was given it. He scrambled back into his seat, whispering urgently, "It's a girl! My penpal is a girl!"

"Sounds great, maybe you'll hit it off with her," Zoro offered positively, though Usopp frowned at him.

"Zoro, North Blue is in a time zone eight hours ahead of us, and there's no way you could have regular contact that way."

"Well, you will not know until you start writing to her!" Luffy pointed out without looking up from his scribbling.

Usopp shrugged, still looking unsure. Then he brightened up. "I've got nothing to worry about! Why, I once visited a village in North Blue populated solely by women! They loved me! They all begged me to stay," he lied smugly, "but I didn't dare break their women-only tradition."

"Ehh, that is cool!" Luffy gasped, finally looking up to the teen in front of him. "You were a real Casanova?"

"Yeah man," Usopp grinned.

Finally, Zoro was called to the front. Shanks handed him the last card in the bowl.

"There ya go kiddo," he nods reassuringly. To the class he announced, "Now that you've all got your penpals, the information will be sent to the North Blue participants immediately; they'll receive an email tonight from their teachers about who their penpals are and a little about each of you, taken from your self introductions from last week's induction day. You have until Thursday to compose and send your first letter, you're dismissed."

Zoro heads back to his seat without listening, reading the card.

 _Sanji Black_  
_Flat 3_  
_Dormitory 7_  
_North Blue College_  
_Northern International District_  
_North Blue_

Curiously, he turned the card over as he sat down, and noted there was more text.

"Guys, look on the back of your cards," he grunted, seeing that they did the same.

" _I'm Sanji Black, I'm nineteen and a second year Culinary Arts Major; my hobbies include creating new recipes, music, practising savate and hanging out with my friends."_   Zoro read aloud, his mind on the savate. That was a form of martial art, wasn't it? This guy might not be so bad.

 _"I'm Kaya Kouda,"_ Usopp began, putting a slightly higher pitch to his voice. _"I'm eighteen and a first year Medical student, studying to be a children's doctor. I like reading adventure and fantasy novels in my spare time, as well as drawing and shopping with friends."_ Usopp gave a small chuckle. "She sounds cute."

"She sounds smart," Zoro nodded, "definitely out of your league."

"Hey!" barked Usopp, grabbing pencil from his desk and throwing it at the green haired, chuckling teen.

"Guys!" Luffy scolded. "At least listen to mine too!"

"Go on, Luffy," Zoro grinned, "We're listening."

 _"My name is Law Trafalgar, I'm nineteen and a second year Medical student, studying to become a-_ Zoro, what is-?"

"Surgeon. A doctor who does operations on people."

"Oh! _A surgeon, and I like animals, alternative music, and tattoos. I don't like bread."_ Luffy started to laugh. "Who writes what they don't like when writing to a stranger?"

"He's in the medical course too, maybe Kaya and Law know each other," Usopp wondered aloud.

"That'd be good! We could all become friends!"

"Maybe," Usopp shrugged again. He glanced at his watch. "Two o'clock's coming up guys, catch you back at the flat." With that, the tanned teen hurriedly packed up and rushed off to class.

"I should go too," Zoro announced, grabbing his stuff.

"Awh, it's no fun when I'm the only one free." Luffy pouted.

"Go visit Nami or Chopper."

"They have classes on Monday afternoons like you guys."

"Then start writing your letter to whatshisface."

"Yeah... I guess I can do that."

The two of them exited the classroom a moment later, Luffy walking - and subtly guiding - Zoro to his Psychology class before wandering off to wherever it goes when he doesn't have anyone to annoy. The card in Zoro's pocket stayed at the back of his thoughts the whole time.

* * *

  
"Bathroom's free now," Kei announced as they walked past Sanji's open door way, then changed their mind and wandered in, towel still in their wet hair.

"You're going to catch a cold if you don't dry it properly." Sanji stood up from his desk chair and starting rubbing the towel roughly against Kei's dark red hair.

"Yes Mother." Kei muttered under their breath, receiving a yank on their hair in return. After being flatmates with Sanji for a year already, they were used to being coddled by the taller teenager. They had a close, confusing relationship, since when they first met, Sanji didn't know how to act around someone who was genderfluid.

"Look at you, so tiny and helpless," Sanji cooed jokingly, earning an elbow to the ribs. He was joking of course; Kei was barely two inches shorter than him at 5'9", and despite being extremely slender, had fast movements and a sharp response, despite their lazy nature.

"Fuck off," Kei snapped, then returned to their previous gentle expression. They wriggled out of Sanji's grip to go sit cross-legged on his bed. "Have you had an email yet about your penpal?"

"Not yet," Sanji replied, sighing. He sat back at his desk, where his laptop was open to his Facebook page. Opening his mail, he refreshed it; no new emails. "It's nearly 10pm here.. so it's about 2pm there."

"They might not have had their class yet?" Kei suggested helpfully.

"Maybe." With another sigh, Sanji refreshed his Facebook. "I just hope it's a cute, smart girl who likes the same stuff that I do."

"Yeah, sure, that's likely," Kei snorted. "Admit it, you wish you got to do Sign Language with me."

"It does seem more interesting," Sanji admitted, swivelling in his chair.

Kei grinned happily. "It is! I can spell my name, watch."

They held up their left index finger, and curled their right index finger next to it. "That's a K, see?" Sanji nodded.

"The thumb and fingers on the left hand are the vowels, so the thumb is A, the index is E, the middle finger is I, the ring finger is O and the pinky is U. So after K would be E and I." They tap the top of their index and middle fingers on their left hand with their right.

"Remember when I thought your name was spelt K-a-y?" Sanji laughed.

"Yeah, I was so annoyed. Especially when you responded to everything with 'kay' out of habit. I'm glad you stopped." Kei grinned.

Sanji talked with Kei for a while, about the Sign Language Kei was learning, about stuff that happened in both of their classes today, and funny things they both saw on Facebook. A door, loudly clicking shut made them go quiet, and eventually footsteps reached Sanji's door.

"Where's my invite to this slumber party?" Law smirked and he stopped tapping on his phone and looked at the pair. Kei stuck their tongue out at him as he leaned against the door way.

"More like, where've you been?" Sanji asked in reply. "We ate dinner without you."

"I told you to eat dinner without me," Law pointed out. "I was with Kidd."

"Well, your portion's in the fridge, put it in the microwave for 2 minutes."

"Thanks Mother."

"See! It's not just me!" Kei exclaimed with a grin. Sanji rolled his eyes.

"Have you got your email yet?" Sanji asked Law before he walked off, and before the dark-haired teen could reply his phone answered for him, alerting him to an email.

"Just got it," Law began reading. _"Luffy DeMonkey. I'm Luffy! I'm nineteen! I'm a Sports Major! I like food, especially meat! I also like adventures, mysteries and making friends!"_ Law snorted.

At that moment, Sanji's other flatmate Kaya left her room, which was next to Sanji's.

"Oh, you got your email?" she asked Law excitedly.

"Yeah," he shrugged. "I got stuck with some hyperactive weirdo."

"My penpal is someone called Usopp," she informed them. "He's a graphics design student, so he likes drawing and art too. I'm kinda glad," she admitted. "I was worried it'd be someone who wouldn't want to write to me."

"Who wouldn't want to write to such a beautiful girl such as yourself?" Sanji swooned.

"Who did you get, Sanji?" Kaya swayed around Sanji's compliment.

"I haven't checked yet, my dear, hold on." Sanji swivelled his chair towards his laptop and checked his mail, seeing that his came too.

 _Zoro Roronoa_  
_Flat 5_  
_Dormitory 2_  
_West Blue College_  
_Western International District_  
_West Blue_

"Ugh it's a guy," Sanji whined, drooping unhappily, making Kaya laugh. Kei wandered over, crossing their arms on Sanji's shoulders and reading over them.

 _"I'm Zoro Roronoa. I'm nineteen, and a second year physical therapy student. I'm aiming to become a martial arts and fitness instructor with qualifications in physiotherapy and meditation. I practice kendo and martial arts in my spare time. I like music, video games and alcohol."_ Kei read aloud in a unnaturally gruff, dull voice. "Well, at least he's got a clear idea of what his goal is."

"What kinda student tells a stranger they like alcohol?" Law chuckled.

"What kind of person puts 'I don't like bread'?" Kei quipped back with a raised brow. Kaya giggled at the two of them and announced she was going to bed, then left.

"Lots of people eat it, not many don't. It means I'm more unique." Law joked. He left to go get his food.

"Whatever." Straightening up, Kei patted Sanji's back where he was slumped on his desk. "Don't worry Sanji, he does martail arts, and you do savate right? There you go; something in common."

"It's not the same," Sanji mumbled pitifully. "I just wanted a cute girl!"

Kei just sighed.

 

^Kei

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kaya's surname comes from her Japanese VA!
> 
> LANGUAGE THING:  
> North Blue (=Europe) - universal language: English  
> Sanji - French/English [1st/2nd language]  
> Kei - English/Japanese, also likes learning (British) Sign Language (let's pretend that's universal)  
> Franky - English  
> Robin - Multilingual (most likely includes French, Dutch, German, Russian, English, variants/dialects of these languages, and more)  
> Brook - English, speaks some French  
> Law - English  
> Kidd - English  
> Ivankov -French/English  
> Alice - English/Sign Language
> 
> West Blue (=Japan/West Coast USA) - universal language: English  
> Zoro - Japanese/English  
> Luffy - Brazilian/English, likes learning Japanese and Sign Language  
> Nami - English/Japanese  
> Vivi - Brazilian/English (headcanon Vivi with darker skin sorrynotsorry)  
> Usopp - English/Kenyan (native language Swahili)  
> Chopper - English, learning several others in his spare time (probably)  
> Ace - Brazilian/English  
> Shanks - English  
> Mihawk - Japanese/English
> 
> Sorry if it's all confusing!! I can't think of how to explain it better. Think different languages as different areas of North/West Blue, and now they're all at college where the universal language is English.
> 
>  
> 
> Please tell what you think, I would love to read your opinion! :)
> 
>  
> 
> ((Note I figured out how to add pictures! Go me!))


	2. The First Exchange

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aaaand.... Action! The first letters are exchanged!

**WEST BLUE**   
**Wednesday, 7pm**

  
**Dear Sanji Black -**

No, that didn't feel quite right. He turned to a new page.

**To Sanji, -**

Was that too informal? He decided to just go with it.

  
**To Sanji,**

**Hey. I'm Zoro, I got picked to be your letter buddy. Sorry if my handwriting's weird. My teacher told me we're not allowed to type up our letters because apparantly we show aspects of our personality in our handwriting. He's weird.**

**So.. this should probably where I talk about myself and pretend to be super interesting. Honestly, I'm not that interesting. I'm hard working, so I don't go out a lot like most college kids do. I've got a goal to achieve. I wrote that I like video games because I play with my flatmates sometimes. I do like booze but I still haven't been fully drunk yet. I guess Jack Daniels isn't that strong? Whatever.**

**What's up with the savate? Sounds pretty cool. I mainly do kendo but I know hand-to-hand and some other stuff.**

**Reply, I need the credits.**

**Zoro**

  
Figuring that was good enough for a rough draft, Zoro tossed his notebook onto his back pack and slid down from his propped up position at the head of his bed. He was already in sweatpants, which he decided to keep on since all of his flatmates, of all genders, tended to wander in whenever they felt like it, and instead pulled his tshirt off. He was too tired to get up and close his door fully so he left it ajar. He rolled until he reached the edge of his bed and dropped into the push-up position on the floor.

_Just 200 push-ups tonight,_ he thought. _Then maybe 100 hand stand push-ups. And 50 weight lifts.._.

He went through reps of 25 on each exercise, with 30 seconds break between each rep. He'd usually include exercise for his lower body too, but Luffy and Usopp had dragged him all over town after their classes finished and after shopping and eating in town he was sure his legs were well exercised.

  
There was a knock at his door, which pushed open at the same time he finished his last rep.

  
"Ugh," Nami wrinkled her nose, taking in his sweaty physique.

  
"If you don't like what you see, why are you here?" Zoro smirked, flexing his arms at her. They exchange random gestures at each other, signs they made up when they were kids so they could insult each other without getting in trouble at school. Finally Nami seems to give up on the gestures.

  
"I swear I'm a lesbian because of you. I only came to see if you had that ten bucks I leant you yesterday."

  
"It was two dollars."

"And now it's ten; what's your point? Pay up, loser."

Rolling his eyes with a sigh, Zoro dug around in his bedside drawer for some change. He came up with the two dollars he originally borrowed, and since he couldn't find anything else he handed it over.

"Just take one of my beers for the rest." he told her.

Nami seemed to debate it in her head for a while, then nodded. "Fine, but just this once."

Zoro grinned; this was the third time he'd swapped alcohol for not paying Nami's absurd rates.

"Have you started your letter yet?" Nami wandered over to his bag, picking up Zoro's notebook before he could reply.

"It's just a draft," he insisted.

"You were probably going to leave it until the last minute, and hand this in thinking it's good enough, weren't you."

He shrugged silently. He wasn't going to argue.

"Well at least you tried being interested in this guy. What is savate?" Nami quirked a brow.

"I think it's a leg-oriented martial art?"

"Oh, that's cool I guess." She glanced in his direction when he moved to wipe his torso with a towel. "As long as he isn't some over-muscled fitness freak like you."

"I'm a modern Adonis, you can't handle my sexy," posing with the towel in one hand against the nape of his neck, he pulled the band of his sweatpants down a little with his other hand to reveal the sharp V of his hips. Nami gave his body an apreciative look with a smirk.

"You may be Adonis, but I prefer Aphrodite." she winked back cutely with a giggle, then handed him his notebook back as she passed him by. "I've got sign language to learn, bye bye!" She did a little wave with her hands, presumably the gesture for goodbye, and left, shutting the door behind her.

Zoro was always thankful that she was one of those people.

Flopping onto the bed, he yawned and switched the light off, thankful he snagged the room with an extra lightswitch by his bed. It wasn't even 9pm yet, and he wasn't that tired, but he had nothing better to do. He could hear Nami yelling at Usopp and Luffy to turn their game down, to no effect. Their hollering and laughter were louder than the game itself.

He cleared his thoughts and allowed himself to sink into sleep.

* * *

As Zoro left his final class at 3pm on Thursday, a loud ring echoed in the hall as Shanks started the school broadcasting system.

"Reminder to the brats in the Penpal Project: hand in your letters to me in the next half an hour or you will have credits deducted!"

Cursing, Zoro hastily pulled his backpack off his shoulder; tearing the letter semi-neatly from his notepad. He dug around for the envelope he pinched off Vivi - she's always writing letters home; she wouldn't miss a couple - and found it slightly crumpled at the bottom of his bag.He quickly scrawled Sanji's address across it as neat as he could when he was writing against a wall, then stuffed the letter into it and sealed it shut. Collecting his stuff, he took off towards Shank's office.

* * *

**North Blue**

  **Friday**

When Sanji's phone starts blasting his alarm at 5am, he groans. It's a Friday, and he'd tried staying up late the night before to see if his email would come through about his penpal. Checking his phone, he saw that an email had come through in the early hours of the morning, just before he woke up. Pulling his phone off charge, he took it with him outside for a smoke, then to the kitchen as he went to make himself and his flatmates their lunches for the day.

He listens to Ed Sheeran as he cooks, humming along to the acoustic melodies as he prepared neat ham salad sandwiches for Kaya, cooked rice and peas for Kei, pasta and sweetcorn for Law and a tuna-mayo wrap for himself. He also prepares a fresh fruit salad as a dessert for everyone; adding extra strawberry slices to Kaya's, kiwi slices to Kei's and grapes to Law's, as well as an extra half an orange for himself. He finishes the other half of the orange as he cooks his breakfast.

He would make the others breakfast too, however after several complaints (he makes it too early, they all wake up at different times depending on their schedules), he decided to just stick to lunches and dinners when the majority would be around to eat it; there was a large magnetic white board on their fridge that had a table on it with all their names and the meals of the day, and they would tick what meals they could attend to and cross what they couldn't. If there was a cross in the lunch colomn he would leave out that person's lunch.

He slides his breakfast - ham and cheese omelette - onto a plate and garnishes with a pinch of chives, then pours himself a large glass of orange juice. He eats in his room like he usually does when he has the mornings to himself. Kaya and Law grab food on the way to their 7am classes, and Friday's were Kei's morning off from classes and Sanji doubted they'd surface before 11am at the earliest. He had work to catch up on, anyway.

* * *

**Saturday**

The sound of post hitting the floor alerted Sanji out of his slouched position on the couch. Having finished this week's work the night before, he'd spent the morning trying not to look to eager for his letter to come. Letters from West Blue take a day and a half to get to North and South Blue, and three days to East Blue. As much as he hated to admit it, he was kind of excited to find out any differences in culture West Blue might have to North Blue. Therefore he totally did not jump up and dash to the door. There were no witnesses to prove it.

There was a letter for Law, and one for Kaya too, since they were all in the same project. Law's felt weirdly sticky; and was sealed with smiley face stickers. Kaya's had a paint smudge on one corner.

His own letter was a little crumpled; and either the guy had terrible handwriting or he rushed to write the address. Probably the latter, Sanji sniffed disapprovingly. He slipped Law's and Kaya's letters under their bedroom doors and knocked on their doors to get their attention. Returning to his own room, he left the door open behind him when he noticed Kei leaving their room. It was about 11am after all, so it was no surprise they'd just woken up. Kei followed him into his room.

"She pronouns today," was the first sentence out of her mouth, to which Sanji nodded. He still didn't know Kei's biological gender, and thought it was too rude - and probably inappropriate - to ask, which is why he seemed unable to fawn over her on days where she felt feminine.

"You got your letter?" she yawned, settling down amongst the pillows at the head of Sanji's bed. Sanji joined her, crossing his legs as he sat.

"Yeah, I put Law's and Kaya's under their doors." He started to tear it open. Inside, he found an A4 sheet of lined paper, half-filled with blue ink. The letter was written in small, unjoined letters, surprisingly neat compared to how the guy wrote his address on the envelope. Kei read with him over his shoulder, and they sat in silence for a moment.

"Well, he's quite straightfoward, isn't he?" she commented when she finished reading.

Sanji nodded. "That's pretty good I guess. To be honest, I don't think I'm bothered about him being a guy anymore," he sighed, running a hand through his hair and rubbing the back of his neck. "I just wonder if I have enough in common with him that'd last the next 3 months."

Kei tapped a thin finger at the bottom of his letter. "Well, there's that for a start. Isn't it a good sign that he's showing an interest in your hobby? He's able to make an effort at least."

"Yeah, that's true I guess." Stretching his arms over his head, Sanji got up and grabbed his notebook and pen from his desk. He shrugged around Kei's questioning look. "Might as well write my reply now."

"I'll help," she offered.

"That's why I'm writing it with you here, my dear." Sanji grinned with an eyebrow waggle. 'My dear' was as affectionate as Kei allowed -most of the time.

"Well," Kei smirked back, "we don't want him thinking you're an asshole now do we?"

Sanji's grin turned into a pout.

* * *

An hour later, and Sanji was finally happy with his third attempt at his letter. He set it to the side as he got up, this time to make the gang a nice lunch, since it was a rare occasion where everyone was together.

They discussed their letters over chicken and veggie stir fry. Law's penpal, Luffy, had apparently wrote his letter in red felt tip pen (his favourite colour apparently) and wrote about being the captain of a 'crew' and if he wanted to join it. He also asked if Law knew Kaya, since she was Luffy's room-mate's penpal.

Kaya confirmed that as her penpal Usopp had also asked about Law. His handwriting is flowy and 'artistic' Kaya commented, and there was paint on the letter itself too. He's in the middle of new art project.

When they asked about Zoro, Sanji kept it simple: the guy seemed alright, just kind of muscle-headed and serious, and thinks Jack Daniels is a drink for lightweights. The conversation moved on after that, and lunch finished with a promise that the four of them would go out to drink tonight at their local hangout. Granted, Sanji could hold his liquor the least out of the four of them - Kaya didn't drink due to her health and Kei and Law were pros at staying sober no matter what or how much they drank - so the blonde figures he'll probably be the only one who'll get drunk tonight, and he'll probably do something embarrassing. Maybe he'll just stick to one drink tonight.

* * *

**Sunday**

Or so he thought.

It read 9:15am on the clock above the living room's TV, and Sanji realised he'd overslept. He also noticed that he was lying on the floor, feet on the couch and much of his legs and torso under the coffee table. He was also kinda headachey and hungover.  
Just a little bit, anyways.

He got up carefully; moving slowly and stiffly to the front door and outside first; checking if he was clothed second. Thankfully he was; and he grabbed his packet of cigarrettes from the ground by their flat's plant pot.

He's joined by Law a moment later, the darker skinned man looking the picture of health and livelihood despite the thick, self-rolled cigarrette between his lips. They light up together and enjoy the quiet morning.

* * *

Zoro gets his first letter on Wednesday, when he stopped by his dorm on the way to town with his gym buddies Johnny and Yosaku. Dumping his bag by his closet door, he bent to scoop up the letter where it was left in the middle of his bedroom floor; clearly the result of Luffy being the one to fetch the mail today. He tore it open.

_**To Zoro,** _

_**I don't think you're a boring person if you're working towards something important to you. My goal is important to me too, and I work for it everyday. Savate is a French martial art that only attacks with leg movements; the hands are only used for balance. My hands are important to me as I need them for my goal. I don't get to spar that often though, since I don't really know any other martial artists.**_

_**Also, Jack Daniels isn't for lightweights, I know from experience (sadly). You're just really weird.** _

_**My question for you: what type of music do you listen to?** _

_**Reply.** _

_**Sanji** _

Zoro smirked. He may just get along with this guy a bit better than he thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I keep alternating between past and present tense and I have no control over it at all I'm so sorry.
> 
> I'm also no good at keeping up with Sanji's smoking so if you don't read a lot of it pretend he smokes between scenes or something OTZ


	3. Polarized

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I played Life Is Strange recently and fell in love with Polaroid pictures.

**West Blue**

It's been two weeks since Zoro and Sanji started exchanging letters. Zoro has three letters from his pen pal so far, and he's noticed that the guy was trying to avoid being too personal with him. They've talked about their music tastes - they both like alternative rock and most catchy tunes played on TV, but Sanji leans more to the ‘pop’ side of pop-punk compared to Zoro preferring punk. But they both like a band called Fall Out Boy, and some other mutual bands.

They've also talked about favourite foods, a topic Zoro started since he thought he'd learn more about the other guy that way. It'd sort of worked; he'd received a two-page letter after in response, the majority of which was an explanation of how a chef shouldn't have a favourite meal because every meal they make should be to the best of their ability. He then went on to say that despite that he did like Italian food the best personally, though he was always up for trying new dishes. Zoro was reminded slightly of an eager puppy from the other guy's enthusiasm.

He'd given his own answer to his own question too of course - Japanese food. He wondered if Sanji would guess he was Japanese. For some reason though he didn't think Sanji was Italian.  Maybe it was because his name sounded Japanese to him.

Sanji’s latest question to him was about films. The North Blue student personally liked comedy the best, especially if they had really bad romantic encounters in them. He didn't like horrors but he can stomach some types of horror since his friends Law and Kei force him to watch them.

Zoro wasn't really big on movies personally, and so far in his reply all he'd written was that if he had to say,  he's probably seen more action-comedies than any other kind. He wasn't sure what else to put, which is why he was a day behind sending his letter.  Shanks wasn't keeping tabs on students sending their letters anymore, so as long as Sanji doesn't complain to his teacher about his lateness he'll be fine.

He kicks off his trainers as he entered the flat, noticing that Luffy was at the dining table, concentrating hard at writing.

“S’up Luffy, writing to Law?”

“Yeah, he asked me to write about my friends. I wrote about Usopp first and now I'm writing about you!”

Curious, Zoro wandered over and peered over his shoulder. It was written with purple felt tip this time, but it was legible enough. Luffy described Usopp as a cool, funny artist with cool curly hair and a big nose. Zoro was sure the ‘cool artist’ wouldn't appreciate that comment.

He kept reading. Luffy had described him as a cool warrior with awesome green hair, who's awesome-strong and great to hang out with. He was Luffy’s best mate, they've known each other since high school, and they would fight to protect each other and their friends.

If Zoro was an easily emotional person he would probably be embarrassed right now, but instead he grins and laughs, rubbing his knuckles across the younger boy's head affectionately.

“Thanks bud, I sound awesome!”

“Shi shi shi, no problem Zoro! Ne, how's your letter going?”

“Er…” Zoro sighed, moving around his friend to head into the kitchen. “Not so good. I don't know what else to write about.” He opened up the fridge and grabbed the Chinese takeaway that was taped shut -to keep Luffy out- and had his name scrawled all over it, and after cutting it open he stuck it into the microwave and set it to heat up for 5 minutes. It was his cheat night from his usual attempts at eating healthy and he wanted to enjoy it without having to think about his letter.

“Why don't you write about us? And you can ask about his friends too.”

“Maybe, he said one of his friends is called Law, so I guess the three of us got three friends together too? Usopp to Kaya, you to Law, me to Sanji. I guess I could write about us.”

“We could take a picture together! When Usopp gets back we should take a picture of the three of us and put it in one of our letters.”

“Isn't that too much? They might want to stay anonymous.”

“They don't have to send pictures back, I just want them to see what me and my friends look like!” Luffy grinned, “and if they send pictures back then that's even better!”

Zoro sighed. There was no stopping his friend once he's made his decision.

 

Eventually he gave up trying to think of something himself, and wrote about his roommates. He wrote only a little about Luffy, certain the boy was well-known amongst Law’s friends already. He wrote about Usopp, and about their mutual friend Chopper, and he felt obligated to mention Nami, in case she found out and bitched at him.

He felt a little awkward writing about himself, trying to describe his hair and earrings and height, though he had no problem writing about how physically strong he was. He was proud of his strength after all. However he still felt a bit weird. He plugged his ipod into the dock and hit play, not minding what song came up, and was pleasantly surprised when Fall Out Boy came on,  since he had their songs stuck in his head for a few days now. The intro chant to Novocaine filled his room and blocked out his noisy roommates.

He wrote a little more about himself and his athletic routines, before he gave up and sat back in his chair, letting the music wash over him. He wasn't that bad of a singer himself, but his pronunciation wasn't too good, and he couldn't sing as high as the FOB singer was in this song, but he could cover it well with his guitar; when he bothered trying to sing, anyway.

Luffy and Usopp invade his room a few songs later, the latter bringing his Polaroid camera with him. He gets sandwiched between the two energetic bundles and despite all the nudging and laughing they manage a group photo for each of their pen pals. They goof around for a bit, and Usopp sneaks a picture of him in mid laugh, and runs away before Zoro could snatch it from him. Luffy grabbed him and wrestled him to the floor, allowing the long-nosed teen to escape.

“Dammit Luffy!” Zoro ground out as angrily as he could with his face in the carpet.

The boy just continued to laugh at him, and eventually Zoro gets the upper hand and frees himself.

The younger teen left him after a while, but not before he stole the lukewarm, half-eaten Chinese noodles on the way out. Zoro didn't really mind.

He sat at his desk again, his photo of the three of them lying on top of his letter. It was his favourite of the three they took, since his resting scowl was more of a relaxed smirk in this one. Luffy had his eyes closed, but was grinning widely at the camera with a peace sign. Usopp was posing with his thumb and finger extended under his chin, pushing his lips out in a ridiculous pout, and was attempting a ‘sexy’ look with half-lidded eyes. In his opinion he himself looked the best out of the three of them, which is why he chose it. For some reason he wanted to be the one Sanji’s attention should focus on.

He finished his letter with a short “tell me about yourself/your friends”, sealed the picture in the envelope with it, then dropped it into his backpack to send away in the morning.

Now, to go find that picture Usopp took of him laughing.

 

* * *

**North Blue**

Sanji was a little irked when he didn't get his letter when he thought he would. Granted, it was technically only a day late and it still arrived the same day as Law and Kaya’s, but he was worried that Zoro had become bored of him already. He knew he wasn't too personal with his letters, though he did write excessively about food before, but he was slow to trust people with information about himself.

When his letter did finally arrive, the three room mates all huddled together on the floor around the small coffee table in the living room, all of them noticing that the letters felt a bit bulkier than usual.

Sanji tore into his quickly, hands snatching the one-page letter and something made of slightly stiffer material.

It was a Polaroid picture.

“Looks like we all got one,” Law observed, and the blonde noticed that he and Kaya were also holding one.

“Let's read our letters first,” Sanji suggested. “Then we can look at the pictures together.”

The two had already started reading, making Sanji roll his eyes. Reading his own letter through, he concluded that Zoro wasn't that big of a fan of movies, had quirky, fun friends, and, wow, green hair.

He glanced at the photo. So he's the one in the middle. Sanji studied him as the others kept reading; Law had several crumpled pages left to read and Kaya was on her second page of three.

Zoro had Japanese heritage by the looks of it, though he was also very tan. His hair was natural according to the letter, and yet the short, spiky green locks seemed to suit him. He was smirking up at the camera, in a relaxed sort of way. The earrings in his ear caught the light and showed up really well in the picture, too. He had a muscled build, yet it wasn’t too overly built, and seemed to suit his figure, even if he appeared slouched over in the photo.

He guessed the boy behind him was Luffy, since he had a scar on  his cheek, like Zoro mentioned. The person taking the photo must be Usopp then.

“So, photos?” Law prompted, setting his down on the table. Sanji set his next to it, and Kaya set hers on the other side.

With all the photos side by side, Sanji noticed that his had the best photo of Zoro, since in the other two he was scowling or looking at Usopp. Coincidentally, Kaya’s photo had the best shot of Usopp, where he was grinning at the camera and looking quite handsome; with his strong jawline, strangely long nose and chin scruff. His long curly hair spiked wildly from his ponytail and covered most of Zoro’s face, which may be the reason why he looked like he was yelling at him. In the background, Luffy was making ears with his fingers behind the other two boy’s heads and making rabbit teeth over his bottom lip comically.

“Usopp looks a lot different than I imagined..” Kaya admitted softly, with a slightly clouded look in her eyes as her thoughts drifted in the front of her mind’s eye.

“Luffy looks exactly how I thought.” Law scoffed amusedly. “A giant kid, really.”

In Law’s photo, Luffy was in the centre of focus, make a hilarious monkey impression, down to the wide nostrils and big ears. How he managed it, Sanji would never know. Zoro was scowling at the camera from a little ways behind him and only a part of Usopp’s face could be seen, since he was facing Luffy and laughing hard. On the stip of card under the photo, Luffy had written “MY MONKEY FACE!” in block letters.

“Hey, look at Usopp’s face in my photo, Kaya-chan,” Sanji slid the picture across the table, bringing the blonde girl out of her thoughts. Her eyes swept over the photo and took in every little detail, and she smiled, giggling.

“He looks so interesting,” she wondered, sliding the picture back to Sanji.

“Kaya, I was wondering..” Law began hesitantly, “but are you surprised that Usopp is black? Or, at least, mixed race?” Law fumbled with his words a little, trying not to insult Kaya or Usopp at the same time. Law himself had naturally tanned skin, and came from a mixed background, however he was adopted after his biological family died when he was extremely young, and didn't know much about them.

“I’m! I mean, I’m not- I have no problems with it, you’d know if I did..” Kaya frowned, then looked away. “My parents didn’t have a lot of mixed race friends, so.. I’ve never met someone who wasn’t white. After my parents passed away, Klahadore was very specific of who was allowed to visit me. He was very racist, and only let me talk to white people. He was a horrible man, judging people by their skin colour.” Kaya’s expression twisted angrily. “I’ve always thought that it was wrong to judge people like that, I feel horrible for being brought up the way he taught me to think. I want to be friends with Usopp no matter what.”

“You’re not racist, Kaya, you didn’t chose to think that way,” Sanji sympathized. “I remember reading a quote somewhere that really stuck with me: _‘That the first thought that goes through your mind is what you have been conditioned to think. What you think next defines who you are.’_ You’re not hypocritical for correcting yourself on your thought mentality, it shows just how good of a person you are.”

Kaya looked like she was about to cry. “Thank you, Sanji.”

The teenager smiled happily at her, his heart fluttering happily. How could she be anymore beautiful? She was like an angel-

“Now then,” Law cleared his throat loudly. “I’m guessing the guy with green hair is Zoro?”

“Yeah,” Sanji nodded. “It’s natural apparently.”

“How interesting,” Law looked intrigued. “He must have an unusual DNA structure that contains a hereditary or mutated gene, to cause green pigmentation….” He started to mutter under his breath about different medical and biological things, and Kaya ‘hmm’ed and nodded along with him; however Sanji couldn’t follow it at all.

He grabbed his photo again, leaning back against the couch behind him. Despite the green hair, the stocky, muscled body that was so much the opposite of his own type, and the clear fact that he was very male and very masculine, Sanji couldn’t help but find his pen pal attractive. They were both teens after all, and Sanji was very much interested in romance, though he was only now starting to take an interest in the same gender too. Living with Law for a year can do that to people.

“Oh!” Kaya exclaimed, picking up her envelope. “There’s another photo in my envelope!” She delicately pulled the smaller, square envelope out of the original one. She read the writing on it quickly.

“It says: _‘Kaya, please give this to Sanji. I risked life and limb to send this to you! If you never hear from me again, it will be because Zoro will have found out I sent it to you. Please remember me as a valiant warrior, fighting for a noble cause.”_ How strange.” She passed it over to Sanji.

Curious, Sanji carefully ripped the envelope open and pulled out the polaroid inside. It was slightly blurred, yet Luffy’s face in the background was still recognisable despite this. The person in focus though was Zoro, and he was snapped in the middle of laughter. It was a child-like, genuine laugh that lifted his naturally-sharp brows in amusement and gave him such a happy, light-hearted appearance that Sanji felt the sharp intake of breath he pulled into his lungs, and he could feel his heart start to beat faster.

Yes, Sanji decided, Zoro was very much attractive, and he was already falling.

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really enjoyed describing the picture Sanji was sent, so I drew it! Sorry it's not very good lmao  
> (if you recognise where Luffy's shirt is from you're cool)
> 
> I don't know where the thing with Kaya came from, but it seemed to fit. Klahadore is an asshole in the OP so he should be an asshole in this AU.... obviously just for different reasons.
> 
> If it's offensive/poorly written I apologize, I'm not at all trying to be racist of offensive.
> 
> Please let me know what you think?


	4. I Like Your Face

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zoro and Sanji are starting to recognise their feelings...slowly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A couple updates:  
> -I went back and changed a note in the first chapter, Usopp is half Kenyan, and his native language is therefore Swahili. I know originally I left it as 'African' in my original notes, I forgot to change it, and I realise I may have unintentionally upset some people over this, as Africa itself is a diverse continent as has several amazing languages to choose from. I chose Kenya simply because that was a place I've always wanted to visit some day. Sorry for any inconveniences.
> 
> -This chapter is over 7'700 words long! This is officially the longest chapter for a story that I've ever written. You have no idea how happy I am.
> 
> -The title of this chapter is mostly irrelevant since I made it up on the spot after finished the final edit on the bit describing Zoro's thoughts on Sanji's eyebrows lmao b y e
> 
> -I've been informed that "Belgian" isn't really its own language but a mix of Dutch, German and French, so I've changed Robin's list of languages to include these.

**North Blue**

 

**_To Zoro,_ **

**_Thanks for the photo, it surprised me and the others that you would include them but we all like them a lot._**

**_You're definitely not how I expected you to be. I mean that in a good way. A lot of our fitness majors here are total assholes and their muscle mass is way too high compared to their natural bodies, haha. They're also not too bright either, I doubt they could write letters like you._ **

**_Law, Kaya and I all shared our photos with each other and compared them. Luffy is probably the weirdest person we've ever seen. How does he stretch his face like that?_ **

**_Usopp seems to be trying very hard to look good in his photo to Kaya compared to his faces in the other ones, does he maybe have a small crush on her? I know for a fact that they always write several pages to each other at a time, and more frequently than us or Law and Luffy. It would be very cute if that were the case - although kind of sad I imagine too, what with the long distance between them._ **

**_Also, I reckon I have the best one of you, is this on purpose or just a coincidence? Haha._ **

**_Anyway, about my friends. Law was one of the first friends I made here in college, we roomed together for our first years too. It was slightly distracting at first, since I had a small crush on him for the first couple of months - he's a pretty nice looking guy if you ignore the DEATH tattoos on his hands and his creepy sense of humour. He's a lot like my essay Beta, Robin. She's a beautiful woman, with one of the most morbid senses of humour I've ever known. How her fiancé Franky puts up with it, I have no idea._ **

**_But yeah, Law is a pretty cool guy. I don't have a crush on him anymore; he's not my type, romantically anyway. A great friend though._ **

**_Kaya roomed with us at the beginning of the first year too, however she left about halfway through the year for health reasons, and now she's had to repeat a year. It's sort of okay though because she still has most of her coursework and materials from last year and it's boosting her grades a lot. Her health still plays up sometimes, but Law has been given permission to help her out with her treatments and medications, so that she can stay in college and not miss anything again. Despite her fragile health she is still one of the most beautiful, sweet angels I've ever met; as refreshing as lemonade on a cool summer's day under the shade of a tree. She's always a delight to be around._ **

**_Kei is probably my closest friend, in a sense that I spend more time with them than anyone else. They identify as genderfluid, meaning they don't consider themselves to be a boy or girl, but rather neutral. They have days where they feel more like a boy than a girl, and days of the opposite, but 90% of the time prefer neutral pronouns._ **

**_This was stupidly hard for me to understand at first, because I was raised to treat girls like Queens that deserve everything they could ever wish for, and that they must be handled gently and treated with respect and grace. However, I also grew up fighting other boys and hating them, and the adult men in my life were brutes, disrespecting each other easily and swearing all they want. They could work together well enough even if they handled each other roughly. This clashed hard when I met Kei, who is neither one or the other._ **

**_It's worked out now; I don't treat them as roughly as I do my guy friends, but I don't fawn over them and compliment them as I would a woman. They've really changed my perspectives on how I handle people based on their gender so I'm trying to get better._ **

**_If I’m honest, I don’t really like talking about myself. It feels like I’m trying to show off about myself and it feels weird, since I don’t like standing out if it’s just me. I’m quite tall, one inch taller than you in fact (5’11”). I have blonde hair and a fringe that covers my left eye. It’s leftover from that classic emo phase, but I don’t really care if that’s what people think. If they start talking shit though, that’s a whole other ballpark, and I’m sure as shit gonna kick their ass._ **

**_I have blue eyes, and honestly they’re probably the only part of my face that I like, haha. I always get compliments on my eye colour. I’m also quite lean, but that doesn’t mean I’m weak. I’m what my old man calls a ‘hard gainer’ - or someone who has to train really hard for even a little result. My muscles aren’t very defined unless it comes to my legs, since they’re my main weapons in savate._ **

**_It's funny, if it weren’t for the fact that I can put a face to your name, I probably wouldn’t have told you even this much. The thought of a stranger knowing this much of myself and what I look like makes me uneasy. But you don’t feel like a stranger to  me anymore, I could probably call you a friend. If that’s alright with you._ **

**_So, I’m going to tell you something about myself that I wouldn’t tell to anyone unless they were a close friend. I’m trusting you here. I grew up an orphan. I lost my parents at the young age of 4, and spent 5 years on the street. I grew up speaking French, and having to steal food to survive. I met my adoptive father Zeff when I was nine; he took me in after I stole food from the bins behind his restaurant. He home schooled me and taught me English, and when I was healthy enough, he taught me savate. I probably wouldn’t be alive right now if it weren’t for him._ **

 

**_I hope this doesn’t affect your opinion of me, and I’d like to know about your family too, if that’s okay. Law, Kaya and myself have included our photos too, to return the favour of showing us what you look like. Don’t fall for our good looks!_ **

 

**_-Sanji._ **

 

Sighing in relief, Sanji folded the three pages of writing in correct reading order and slotted them neatly into the envelope. The address was already written on it and stamp was stuck on too. Now he just needed Kei to take everyone’s pictures with their fancy digital camera and he was done. He calls it fancy, Kei’s camera, because it was probably the most expensive thing Kei owned, and they had an electric guitar worth more than $2’000. Well, that’s what happens as a major of Multimedia Arts. No wonder they were tired all the time, incorporating music, photography, literature and other media types into every project was bound to be time consuming.

He leaves the letter on his desk as he gets up, stretching out the kinks in his back before making his way over to Kei’s room.

“You got a few minutes to take some photos for us?” He asks, knuckles _thunking_ lightly against their open door. No-one in the flat really shut their doors properly unless they were in deep-study-mode or blasting music, and the latter was the usual sign of ‘do not disturb’ amongst them.

Kei makes a humming noise, curled up in their computer chair as they type rapidly, and Sanji understands the noise to be “wait a second while I finish this thing”. He doesn’t mind, and takes a look around Kei’s room in the meantime.

Their bed is spacious, covered in pillows of various shapes and sizes, and a round, grey tabby cat pillow is nestled amongst them. An acoustic guitar leans against the bedside table, appearing more recently used than the electric guitar on its stand in the corner. The redhead’s wardrobe doors stand open like always, and the clothes are messily hung up as usual. Their desk takes up the majority of two walls, a necessary evil for all the technology they use for their work. Kei has a couple microphones set up in one section of the desk, another part is tilted at about a 45 degree angle with sketches pinned along it and a lamp lighting it, and the rest is their laptop and a whole bunch of cables for various things.

“What was it you wanted?” Kei speaks up as their typing ceases to a couple clicks with the mouse.

“If you could take a couple pictures of Law, Kaya and myself.”

“To send to your penpals, right.”

“Yeah.”

“Sure, can do, get everyone in the living room whilst I search for it.” Kei delves into a deep drawer in their desk as Sanji leaves to call the other two.

Law joins him immediately when called, and Kaya joins them a moment later, followed by Kei. The blonde girl sits on the couch first, and the boys sit on either side of her.

“Kaya’s photo first, then?” Kei asks, clicking around on the camera and setting it up.

“Yes please,” Kaya smiles. She smoothes out any wrinkles from her light blue, long cotton dress and straightens out the buttons of her cream, knitted cardigan. On her right, Law leans back and crosses his arms with a light sigh, then looks to Sanji, giving his brows a slight wiggle as he mouths, ‘should we look scary?’ to him behind the girl’s back.

Sanji grins. Well, they should look _a little_ intimidating, they can’t let Usopp think he can get to Kaya _that_ easily, right? He needs their blessing after all.

Kei finally finishes messing with their camera and clears their throat.

“Right. Smile, or whatever. I’ll give you a countdown.” They huff, and hold the camera up to their face. Kaya immediately gives the camera her prettiest smile, though to Sanji, all of her smiles are the prettiest.

Law keeps his arms crossed, then allows his best, most arrogant smirk to spread across his face, as if daring the camera to try and get close to Kaya. Sanji has a hand on the small of Kaya’s back, not visible in the shot but means that he is sat quite close to her. He doesn’t focus on the thought for long as he concentrates on putting his coldest, ‘the hell are you looking at?’ face at the camera. He feels like Kaya’s brother like this, and he could probably pass for it too, since they’re both fairly pale and had blonde hair. Kaya has wonderfully warm brown eyes, though, and that’s a fairly big difference.

Kei counts down from three, then snaps the shot.

“Right, that’s one. Who’s next?” Kei fiddles with the camera settings to take a look at the picture, making sure it turned out okay.

“Me I guess.” Law grumbles, and Sanji jumps up, moving to sit at Law’s right hand side after a bit of nudging.

“If you guys keep moving I’m gonna have to put the settings on multishot and hope one doesn’t turn out blurred.” Kei sighs to themselves as they meddle with the settings.

“Right, sorry,” Sanji grins. During all the shuffling, he’d accidentally poked Law in the side, revealing his ticklishness. This prompted Kaya to poke him too, and Law struggled to keep all four hands still.

“Do you guys need a moment?” Kei deadpanned.

“No.” Law succeeded in pushing them both away. This didn’t last long as Sanji’s hands immediately went to the darker man’s hair, bunching the longish locks into two ridiculous ponytails. Kaya’s hands found his face the same moment, pinching and pulling his cheeks comically.

“Quick!” Kaya laughed, and in the three seconds it took to take the shots Law had managed to slap one hand into Sanji’s face in an attempt to push him back, and the other hand was -gently- prying Kaya’s hand off one of his cheeks.

“Thankfully I did put multishot on, but I got a good one either way.” Kei grins. “Law looks hilarious, I’m guessing mission accomplished?”

“Yes!” Kaya cheered, letting go of Law’s cheek and allowing him enough leeway to lean further towards Sanji, which in turn resulted in Sanji getting his face even more smushed and nearly falling off the couch. He catches himself in time to stand up and nudge himself between Law and Kaya for his photo.

“My turn!” Sanji exclaims, wiggling in between his two friends. “What kinda pose should we do?”

“Just smile, please,” Kei rolled their eyes, scrolling through the photos taken. “Your face needs to make up for your shitty personality.”

If it were anyone else, Sanji would probably feel really hurt by such comments, however he knew that Kei liked his shitty, argumentative personality and was just joking around. Law and Kaya laughing didn’t help though.

“Wow, I’m hurt, my heart is breaking,” Sanji quips back sarcastically. Law gives him a shove in the arm, but not too hard, since he didn’t want to knock him into Kaya.

“Whatever. Smile.”

Sanji shifts a little, then relaxes into an easy-going pose, leaning his forearms on his legs and smiling gently up at the camera that Kei was still tweaking with.

“That’s right, smile for that sexy beast of a man you’ve got, Sanji!” Law chuckles lightly in his ear, causing the blonde’s eyes to widen and a heat flush to travel from his ears over his cheeks and down his neck the exact 3-second timespan Kei counts down and takes the photos. Law had fallen back in hysterics, head snug in the crook of his arm as he struggled to breathe between body-aching laughs. Kaya was blushing almost as hard as he was, the flush bright on her pale skin and going as far down as her collar bones, though she too was giggling slightly in shock.

“LAW!” Sanji screamed, horrified. His roommate had rolled off the couch at this point. Sanji’s mind raced over what Law had said. First of all, he had called Zoro sexy. Sanji knew Law swung more ways than one and that never bothered him -especially last year when he was crushing on him- but for him to talk about his penpal like that felt weird. Sure, the guy was attractive, but why did he react to it so much when Law said it like that? Was it because he’d said it close to his ear? Secondly, he implied that Zoro was ‘his’ - but they were only penpals, they didn’t own each other. Well, he knew he liked the guy at least on a friendship level, he wouldn’t object to it being a little more if it weren’t for how far away the guy was. Either way-

“Pfft. Oh my god, your face!” Kei guffawed loudly, clicking on the photos they’d taken. “If I hadn’t taken these myself I would’ve paid to have them.”

“You are gonna pay. With your life!” Sanji growled out, then turned and kicked Law in the side. “You too! What the hell were you thinking!”

“I was thinking, ‘hey these guys made the effort to take funny pictures, we should send a funny one in return’, something like that.”

“We do have a funny one. Your photo’s the funny one. You know, since Luffy is your penpal and he sent the silliest photo?”

“They’re all gonna look at them together I bet, so it doesn’t matter does it?” Law smirked. “Unless you really were trying to look your best for your man. He _is_ attractive.”

“I thought you’re with Kid, and stop calling him ‘mine’, he’s only my penpal.” Sanji frowned, glaring at the dark-haired teen who simply shrugged at him.

“Ah, but maybe you like him a bit more than that?” Kaya added in teasingly, enjoying the way the blonde boy stumbled over his words to correct her.

“I-er, I-I’m not sure what you’re trying to imply, ma chérie, but I hardly think that’s the case,” Sanji averted his eyes from his two smirking friends and got up to look over Kei’s shoulder at the photos.

“All of yours are blurred apart from one,” they tell him, and with a click the photo is brought up on the screen. Law was slightly blurred from the motion of leaning back quickly, an unusually broad laugh splitting his cheeks for his kind of humour, with a hand reaching up to try and cover it. Kaya is slightly blurred too, turning to face Sanji and Law with surprise in her eyes and her hands coming up to her lips in an attempt to hide a blooming grin.

Sanji, however, found his face in the photo to be the most embarrassing.

He was the only one that wasn’t blurred, mainly because he hadn’t moved. His eyes were slightly wide in mortification from Law’s words, and he wasn’t looking directly at the camera anymore, but his smile was still mostly there, even if it made him look slightly jittered. There was a definite tint of red creeping around from his ears too. All in all he looked ridiculously flustered and he wasn’t sure he liked it. It was an incredibly.. honest look on his face, and his emotions are clearly easy to read.

“Hey, it’s not actually that bad,” Law smacks his back none too lightly as he pokes his head between his and Kei’s to take a look. Kaya pops in front of him, blocking his view to take a look too.

“Awh, Sanji, you look so cute!” she cooed, turning and giving him a wink. Whilst he normally would’ve swooned, Sanji could only look away in embarrassment.

“It’s no good, let’s take another, _normal_ , photo.” Sanji sighed, going to sit on the couch again.

“Nah, I really think you should keep it,” Law insisted, still leaning on Kei’s shoulder to look. They didn’t look happy about being used as a head rest, but kept still for the time being. “I know you shut off your feelings a lot by being sarcastic or witty or sauve, but you like the guy right? It’s hard to get along with your usual cocky attitude when it’s not in person, so something a little different won’t hurt you if it means this guy understands you a little better for it.”

Sanji thought it over for a moment, but in his mind he’d already resigned to agree with Law.

“Fine,” he groaned. “But if he gives me shit for it I’m blaming you, asshole.”

“I’ll take all the credit, don’t worry,” Law winked back, then walked off with a laugh. Kaya left too, announcing that she was going to continue her letter to Usopp. Sanji really wanted to tease her about the long-nosed boy, but in the end didn’t want to upset her. He sighed again, flopping back against the backrest of the couch and puffed a breath of air against his fringe. Kei finally stopped standing around with the camera, and came to sit next to him.

“You still want a nice photo?” they asked quietly. Sanji turned to them and saw that they were gesturing at the camera. “Wanna send him one of us together?”

Sanji smiled. As much as they tease each other, Kei still understood him best when he felt awkward or annoyed. Or flustered, in this case. “Sure, thanks.”

“Just wanna take a selfie with you so you can make me look better.” Kei stuck their tongue out at them cheekily. Sanji rolled his eyes, then sat forward to face the camera that Kei was holding up in portrait mode to their right, so that Kei was slightly more forward in the frame. The teens grinned naturally, no pretenses needed, and Kei even included a little peace sign with their free hand.

“Awesome, we lookin’ gooood,” Kei cheered, looking at the photo taken. Sanji caught a glimpse of it as he stood up, none too fussed about this photo compared to the other one.

“Right, well I’d best start on dinner. What do you want?”

“Something with duck? If we have any.”

“Sure, I’m gonna give Law all the fatty bits.”

“You’re not _that_ immature.”

“Watch me.”

 

* * *

**West Blue**

 

“Hey boys, your letters arrived!” Nami called out from the front door. Zoro stopped counting his handstand press-ups, remembering the number 473, and sighed to himself. He was so close to finishing his workout routine uninterrupted by Luffy or Usopp for once, and now it was Nami.

“Hurry and get them or I’ll charge you, idiots!” came a second, less enthusiastic call, and after towelling off his sweat the green-haired teen left his room and wandered down the hall to the living room.

Luffy came barreling past him at high speeds, bouncing off the walls around him to get by and if it weren’t for the perfectly timed Nami stretching her arm out he would have collided with her at the rate he was going.

“Thanks Nami!” Luffy laughed, swiping the letters off of her eagerly. The girl just sighed and went into the kitchen. Usopp passed by her and swiped the letters from the dark-haired teen, who whined.

“Shuddup, I don’t want your sticky fingers all over Kaya’s letter!” Usopp found the letter addressed to Luffy and handed it to him, and as Zoro came closer he handed his to him too.

“They’ve added photos!” Luffy exclaimed excitedly, flapping a printed photo in amusement. “Shishishi, Law looks so funny! What are they doing to his hair and face? Amazing!” he cackled. “Look at those tattoos too! He has DEATH on his fingers!” Luffy hurriedly goes to sit on the floor by the living room coffee table, grabbing at his felt tip pens and attempting to copy his penpal’s tattoos.

“How scary,” Usopp shivered, still holding his unopened letter. “I wouldn’t want a surgeon operating on me when he has DEATH tattooed on his hands.”

“Sounds like he likes creeping people out.” Zoro agreed. Feeling the weight of the letter in his hands, he suspected he might have a lot to read when he opens it, or maybe even more than one photo. He wouldn’t be too hopeful about it though.

“I think they’re cool! Makes him look very strong!” Luffy laughed, finished with his crude attempts at tattooing his hands and instead opening the letter itself.

“What do you and Law even talk about anyway?” Usopp inquired suspiciously, edging towards Luffy to try and catch a glimpse of what was written. There were quite a few pages, for someone who was writing to a manchild who added a smiley face or doodle to every other sentence.

“That’s a secret!” Luffy announced, folding his letters shut before Usopp got too close. Picking

up his envelope and photo as well, he dashed off and shut himself in his room.

“Jeez, what’s his problem?” Usopp muttered, slightly surprised. Zoro too, since Luffy was usually an open book, often talking about everything to everyone.

“What’s up?” Nami asked, returning from the kitchen with a large glass of orange juice.

“Luffy’s being all secretive about his letters from Law.” Zoro informed her, a slight frown on his face.

Usopp scratched at his scalp through the curls of his long hair. “I guess it doesn’t matter too much, right? I mean, this is Luffy we’re talking about; I hardly think they’re gonna talk about serious matters.”

“You’d be surprised,” Nami muttered between sips of her drink. “He can be serious if he wants to be. Especially if he likes someone.”

“Or trying to get someone to join the crew,” Zoro added jokingly. Nami nodded to that.

“Well then, I’m going to open my letter now and finally see who my penpal is!” Usopp announced.Tearing at the envelope carefully, the dark-skinned teen pulled out a single photo, which presumably showed Kaya, and possibly the others.

“Oh shit!” Usopp cursed loudly, shocking the two students standing nearby.

“What?!” Nami exclaimed as she and Zoro quickly rushed to his side.

“She’s gorgeous!” Usopp almost cried, hands shaking as he took in the sight of his penpal.

“Damn..” Nami whistled, impressed. “Usopp swore for like the first time in forever over the sight of a pretty girl.”

“She’s not bad,” Zoro agreed, patting Usopp’s shoulder encouragingly. “You’re a lucky guy.”

Usopp himself let out a strangled whine. “B-but.. L-Law a-and S-S-Sanji a-are-”

With another glance, Zoro noticed that the two guys in the picture were sitting protectively on either side of the beautiful blonde, with slightly aggressive expressions on their faces. Law looked arrogant and dangerous, and Sanji.. well, to Zoro he looked amazing with such an expression. That fighting aura was more appealing to him than frightening, though he wouldn’t tell Usopp that.

“I’m sure it’s fine,” Zoro shrugged. “Sanji’s always nice and polite enough in his letters, and Luffy wouldn’t be so friendly with Law if he thought he was someone bad, right? They’re just acting like protective friends.”

“S-sure, if you say so…” Usopp murmured. His gaze softened as he looked over the details of the girl in the photo. “She’s so stunning. I would never in my life talk to someone like her in person, they’re just too.. up there.” He idly makes a gesture with his hand. “Out of my range.”

“Usopp, what the hell are you saying,” Nami sighed, frowning angrily. “You are an amazing person! You tell the best stories, you’re a brilliant artist, and you’re the funniest person I know, I always go to you to cheer me up. Don’t put yourself down like that.”

“Thanks Nami,” Usopp smiled at the ginger-haired girl warmly.

“Anytime bud,” Nami grinned back.

Usopp wanders off to his room at that point, saying he wants a little space to read his letter.

“Your turn,” Nami’s eyes flicker to the envelope in his hand, taking a sip of her drink.

“Nosy witch,” Zoro muttered, not even flinching when the girl smacked his arm. He tore it open carefully, inspecting it before showing Nami. There were two photos, in fact, so he pulled out the first one, which was Sanji’s version of the group photo.

“Oh wow, that’s a great expression.” Nami grinned, observing Sanji’s embarrassed and wonky smile and the laughter of the blonde’s friends.

Zoro didn’t reply. In reality, he was at a loss for words. The emotions captured in this photo were so clear and honest in each of their faces that he didn’t know how to react to it. He guessed that Sanji was going for a nice smile until Law has said something to him, causing him to look away from the camera in shock. He looked good though, with the light flush on his skin and the mortifying embarrassment clear as day.

“...” Nami glanced between him and the photo, thoughts whirring in her head, and Zoro didn’t particularly like that look. Before she could say anything, the mosshead broke into a sprint to his room. Despite his sudden start, Nami was as fast as him -even with a glass of orange juice in her hand, how did she not spill it? - and she dashed into his room, confident that he wouldn’t slam the door into her. He really wanted to, but he didn’t want to pay for any damages or have to feel guilty for bruising his friend. She was a witch the best of times, and worse when she was angry, ill or hurt.

“You like him!” she exclaims triumphantly, pointing at him with her free hand as he tucks the letter under his pillow, lying down on his bed so the witch couldn’t snatch the letter from him.

“Like who?” Zoro quips back innocently, trying to pretend he didn’t know what she meant.

“You don’t need to pretend to be any more stupid than you already are, dumbass. You _know_ I mean Sanji.”

“What about him?” he carefully ignores the taunt she was trying to bait him into. The ginger-haired girl pouted, then sighed, sitting at the foot of Zoro’s bed, by his shins.

“Zoro.”

“Nami.”

“It’s okay to like him.”

“As a friend.”

“As a crush too.”

“Not really,” he shrugged. “Nothing good would come of it anyway.”

“Zoro,” Nami’s hand rested gently below his knee. “You don’t know anything for sure. Crushes happen no matter the circumstances around them. Who knows, it could work out.”

“Impossible.” Zoro growled out, draping an arm over his eyes in order to avoid hers. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but he’s on an entirely different continent, in a timezone 8 hours ahead of us. It’s not exactly easy.”

“Since when was something like love easy?” Nami snorted, and Zoro wondered for the umpteenth time why men -and women- found her attractive.”Listen, Zozo - if the best things in life were easy, it wouldn’t be worth it, would it? Would you be satisfied with achieving your goals if you got them like that?” She snapped her fingers.

“No,” he admitted, peeking an eye out from under his arm.

“Then it may just be worth it, right?” she grinned in reply.

“Says Miss Bachelorette.”

“Excuse you, for your information, I have a date this weekend.”

“What?” Zoro sat up suddenly, eyes narrowing suspiciously at her smug expression. “Which poor girl did you trick into buying you lunch this time?”

“She asked me, asshole, and it’s Vivi, just so you know.” the teen’s features soften a little as she spoke the girl’s name.

“Vivi? As in rich-girl Viv from my Psychology class?” Nami nodded. “How do you know her?”

“She’s in  my Sign Language class.. thing.” Nami shrugged. “That extra curricular thing Shanks is making everyone do.”

“Wow, nice catch I guess. She’s rich, just your type.”

She punched him in the knee. “Dick. I’m not interested in her money!”

“You sure about that?” Zoro frowned, rubbing his knee lightly.

“Well, it doesn’t hurt. But she’s so down-to-earth, she doesn’t look down on me for not being able to afford fancy dates all the time, she said she just wanted to treat me. Or ‘spoil’ me, as she put it,” grinning happily, Nami got up and downed the rest of her orange juice. “Right, I’ll pester you later, I’m waiting for Vivi to call me! Seeya loser.” With that, she bounced out of the room, closing the door behind her.

With her gone, Zoro finally started to relax a little, and took another look at his photo from Sanji. That expression just seemed so unexpected, for both him and the guy himself, it was amusing. He slid the photo into his bedside drawer and shut it, then pulled the letter from underneath his pillow and took out the second photo.

It was a selfie of Sanji with another student, presumably Kei. Sanji never used gender pronouns when talking about them previously, and from the photo he couldn’t tell either. Their hair was a dark, wine red, and to the chin in length, with a parting roughly in the middle of their forehead. They wore a simple black-and-white hairclip on the left side of their face, though it did nothing to make them more masculine or feminine. Their blueish-green eyes were large and relaxed, a lopsided grin accompanying the look.They were also wearing a shapeless black hoodie, leaving their figure as featureless as possible. While he felt that Kei seemed like a guy… he could see some lighter, feminine qualities to their physique too. All in all it was hard to guess but either way he enjoyed the fact that he got a second photo with his letter and no-one else did.

Sanji seemed a lot more relaxed in this photo, too. There was still the tiniest hint of redness to his ears, but his gaze and grin were natural and happy. The blue of his eyes was also mesmerizing. Sanji wasn’t kidding when he said his eyes gave him a lot of compliments. They were a bright blend of baby-blue and a slight sea-green-blue, reminding him of the powerful waters themselves. His other facial features were a lot more detailed in this up close photo, and Zoro noticed something highly amusing.

Curly eyebrows.

Well, that wasn't something that could be seen everyday, now was it?

He wanted to laugh out loud, but with Nami in the room across the hall, he wouldn’t put it past her to come barging in to see what all the fuss was about, and he didn’t want the others to know about this photo.

It didn't take away any attractiveness from his face, Zoro concluded. It was unusual, but not ugly. Looking closer he also spotted a few like sprinkles of freckles across the blonde’s cheeks, and the slightest hint of stubble growing on his chin. His appearance in general was that of a well-groomed yet laid back young man and though the eyebrows and fringe were something he never considered his type before, he realised that this look suited his penpal quite well.

He’d just slipped the photo into his bedside drawer with the other photo when a knock came to his door and Usopp slid into the room. Said teen was gnawing on his lower lip worriedly and looking despairingly conflicted.

“‘Sup, dude?” Zoro frowned, making space for his friend to sit on his bed with him. The long-nosed boy nodded silently and sat lightly at the edge.

“I read my letter from Kaya,” Usopp began quietly.

“And? What’s wrong?” he urged.

“She.. she wasn’t expecting me to be mixed race.”

The information took a moment to process in his head, and when it did Zoro almost went slack-jawed in disbelief.

“What? Is she some sort of racist?” he growled, angry on his friend’s behalf.

“No! Nothing like that,” Usopp insisted, eyes wide. “She didn’t mean anything hurtful by it, in fact, she was terribly upset in her letter. She’s from a private family and after her parents passed she was raised by a Guardian who was incredibly racist. So she felt ashamed and guilty that her initial reaction to me was of my skin colour.” his voice trembled ever so slightly, and Zoro couldn’t tell if it was in an upset way from the racist reaction or in relief of Kaya’s honesty and truthfulness. “She said she hoped I wouldn’t be offended by her thoughts, and wishes we can still carry on as friends.”

Zoro wanted to comment that the art student probably didn’t like her as ‘just’ a friend anymore, but kept silent on that topic. For now.

“Well, obviously that must be quite a shock for you.” Zoro sighed, scratching at his earrings while he thought of what to say. “I guess it’s the same for her? She clearly hates herself for having her first thoughts of you being about your skin colour, and she’s clearly against the way she was brought up. She must be a good person if she doesn’t agree with her Guardian’s racist upbringing.”

Usopp chuckles at that, confusing Zoro greatly. He was happy to see him laugh though, even if he didn’t know why.

“Wow, that’s such a coincidence.” the curly-haired teen wiped at his eyes with a laugh. “Kaya wrote in her letter about Sanji saying roughly the same thing as you did. The ‘going against the racism she was taught’ stuff. You guys are weirdly similar.” Grinning, Usopp raised a brow.

“Shut up, we’re not.”

“Getting a bit defensive are we? What, do you like him or something?” It wasn’t often that Usopp had the chance to tease Zoro, and he seemed to be enjoying it.

“You know what? I’m feeling generous.” Zoro scowls. “I’m gonna count to three before I jump on you and murder you with my bare hands.”

Usopp falters at that, eyes wide. “You wouldn’t, you’d lose your dorm deposit if you get blood in the carpet!”

Zoro eyed him, deadly calm. “One.”

With an unmanly shriek, Usopp sprang from the bed and ran out of the room, a string of “I’msosorryZoroI’lljustbeleavingnowI’vegotfear-of-strangling-itisanditsveryinfectiousbye!”

 

Sighing, Zoro leaned back against his pillows, finally taking out the letter and reading it. He was sure he wouldn’t be interrupted now. Even if his friends insisted on teasing him constantly, they gave him his space.

Reading it through, he realised that Sanji’s opened up to him, quite a bit in fact. He wasn’t the only one to have noticed Usopp’s feelings either. Maybe he collaborate with Sanji and get those two together somehow. He was pleasantly surprised to find out that Kei was, in fact, genderfluid. It made a lot of sense.

The fact that Sanji was an orphan… surprised him. His upbringing must’ve been terrible for him, and yet he was still a well-rounded and normal teenager like any other. Goddamn, this guy was impressing him even more. No one should have to go through the pain that he must have suffered.. and yet he was as kind as the next person, at least from what he knew of him so far. He considered him a friend, too. He hadn’t considered himself the blonde’s friend at all, but it made his skin warm pleasantly to know he was trusted so much.

There was a note at the bottom of the letter, after the joke of ‘don’t fall for us’, stating that Law had purposely said something embarrassing for him to look that way in his photo, and to please ignore his previous joke, which only amused him more. He was definitely keeping the photo now.

He sighed to himself, folding the letter back into the envelope for now and getting out of bed. He left the letter there and went to Usopp’s room, knocking before he entered.

“Hey,” he greeted.

“Heya, what’s up?” Usopp asked from his position at his desk, a few papers scattered around him and a sketchbook propped open against the wall in front of him. His desk lamp was angled to shine on the sketchbook, which had a small sketch on it, and the teenager had his camera in his hands.

“...What are you doing?” Zoro eyed him suspiciously.

“I-uh, well..” Usopp flustered in surprise, glancing between his camera, the sketchbook and Zoro himself. “Kaya mentioned wanting to see some of my art so I was going to send her some pictures of my sketches. A-and it just so happened that I felt like drawing her, now that I know what she looks like, okay? T-total coincidence.”

“Sure. Usopp, why don’t you just admit that you like the girl?” Zoro grinned, leaning on the frame of the doorway as his friend panicked.

“I-I-I have no idea what you mean!”

“You’re stuttering!” Zoro sing-songed lightly. He usually doesn’t put so much effort in teasing Usopp like this, but he had to take a little revenge for his comment from earlier. He doesn’t have a crush on Sanji, not at all. Even if the guy noticed that the he had sent him the photo he looked best in.

“I always stutter when you make me nervous,” Usopp pouted, looking away. “Fine, I do, so what? It’s not like I can do anything about it.”

“You should stop being so pessimistic, yaknow.” Zoro came in and smirked at the younger boy, folding his arms. “Sanji thinks you have a chance too.”

“Sanji? As in, your penpal Sanji and the guy who looks like he wants to fight me in Kaya’s photo?” Usopp exclaimed in disbelief.

“Yeah. He’s noticed your’s and Kaya’s letters being pages and pages long all the time, and how happy Kaya always looks. What do you even write about to have so many pages?”

“She likes the stories I make up,” Usopp shrugged, though he seemed really happy. “She said she thinks I’ll make a great graphic novelist.”

“That’s awesome.” Zoro smiled happily for his friend. “See? That sounds like she like you to me.”

“I dunno. Maybe.” Usopp hummed thoughtfully. “Anyway, why are you in here?”

“Oh, I wanted to borrow your Polaroid camera. Sanji’s asked about my swords.” he lied. Sanji hadn’t really wrote that, but since he shared something personal to him, he was going to tell him about where he got his white sword, Wado.

“You gonna show him your sword, eh?” Usopp wiggles his eyebrows mischievously as he hands his camera over.

“Shut the hell up!” Zoro grumbled, punching the twig-armed brat light enough to sting, but not enough to bruise. Wincing, Usopp grumbled lightly but kept smirking.

“Whatever, go have fun, don’t get anything on my camera!”

“Yeah yeah, sure.”

He heads back into his room, and snaps a picture of his three swords in their stands. He’s decided that for now on, he’ll add a photo to each of his letters, to make it more interesting and to show that he likes telling Sanji about different things of his life. He sets the snapshot on his desk, along with the camera, before grabbing the letter from Sanji and taking that to the desk too. Before long, he’s writing his reply.

 

**To Sanji,**

**Thank you for your photos, too. They’re really great. Usopp was a little intimidated by you and Law but he’s absolutely got the hots for Kaya, it’s kind of funny. I hope they work out.**

**Thank you, I’ll assume you don’t think I’m that much of an idiot then, which I’m not. Just because my course is mostly physical doesn’t mean I get out of written work, sadly.**

**Luffy’s a rare case. He has a hyperelastic skin condition, meaning his skin stretches a lot more than a normal person’s. Luckily it never developed into any of its more serious forms, and he’s simply a rubber boy with stretchy skin.**

**We all shared our photos with each other, just briefly though. Luffy ran off pretty quick, but we saw how ridiculous Law looked, good job.**

**Thank you for telling me about yourself, I know it probably wasn’t easy. I’m just a stranger for a project after all. But I’ll tell you about myself too, to make it fair.**

**I was adopted too, though as a baby, so I’ve never met my real parents. I was raised by a man named Koshiro, with his daughter Kuina. He ran a traditional dojo and taught kendo, and was well known in his generation for being the best. I grew up alongside Kuina, who’s older than me by three years, training with her to best the best swordsman. However, no matter how well I trained, I could never beat her. Even with two swords, or three, Kuina would always beat me. I challenged her over 1’000 times before I even turned 11. Then one day, she told me that she heard Koshiro talking about leaving the dojo for me to take over, instead of her. As a woman, he believed she was too weak. It enraged both of us so much, especially since Kuina could beat any fully-trained adult from Koshiro’s adult classes. She tried to run away that night, but before I could stop her, she tripped and fell down the stairs. She broke her back, and now she’s wheelchair bound, and may never walk or practise kendo again.**

**After that, I refused to take over the dojo from Koshiro, I hated the thought of taking it from her. I agreed to eventually work for the dojo as an instructor, so long as it was under Kuina’s management. Koshiro agreed to the compromise, and now Kuina has something to live for.**

**After everything that happened, I decided then to become a physical therapist, since I wanted to help ease Kuina’s aches, and maybe even help her to walk again. Her therapy over the last few years has helped her greatly, and the way she broke her back meant she has a chance to regain control of her legs. She can contract the muscles in her thighs as of a month ago, so there’s a lot of hope for her. I’m really hoping she can walk again.**

**With college, Koshiro had a few contacts he pulled strings with, and he got me into here based on my kendo skills. One of the directors of this college, Mihawk, is known as the World’s Best Swordsman, and we agreed on a match, with real swords. The legalities of the fight are still foggy to me, but I wasn’t going to say no if it meant I could get into the best college of West Blue without taking exams. I held my ground against him for 3 minutes, then lost, but I never collapsed. I took a huge-ass wound to my chest though, and was in hospital the whole summer between the end of school and the start of college, but it was worth it to get in.**

**Also, believe it or not, but Luffy got in without exams too. Shanks, the other director of WBC, is his Guardian - so he’s here because Shanks can keep a better eye on him, haha.**

**I’ve included a picture of the swords I use. I use three, in a style called** **_Santoryu_ ** **. The white sword, Wado Ichimonji, was Kuina’s sword, and when she heard that I was having a match against Mihawk, she gave it to me as good luck. After I lost, she gave her to me to keep. I promised her that I would never lose again as long as I wield it.**

**I feel at ease telling you all of this, because I feel like I can trust you. Trust doesn’t usually come easy by me, so I don’t know why I trust you so easily, but I do. I consider you a close friend too. You’re a great guy.**

 

**Hmm, so my next question to you: if Law’s not your type, what is?**

 

**-Zoro.**

 

He nearly scribbled out that last line on impulse, but in the end, he kept it. He was curious, after all. It wouldn’t hurt to know, he told himself, as he scrounged in a drawer for an envelope, then folding and inserting the letter and photo.

Who was he kidding?

He really hoped he was Sanji’s type.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No pictures with this chapter, I'm afraid. I may eventually draw Kei and Sanji's selfie together, but that's only a maybe. Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed, please stop to tell me what you think ^^


	5. Mixed Feelings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zoro and Sanji are friendzoning themselves so badly, the denial is strong in these two.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for your patience, guys. I hope you enjoy it.

**North Blue**

 

It’s been two days since Sanji received Zoro’s reply, and despite ignoring the letter in favour of going to his classes, Sanji was still in turmoil over several things.

The first thing being Zoro’s own history: he was surprised at the response he was given and the honesty of Zoro’s own truthful upbringing, it was kind of him to be equal with him on that level and not keeping himself to himself. He didn’t have to, but did so to be fair to him. They share a similar past as orphans, yet in completely different ways. It was definitely interesting. And his sister… wow. That must have been a truly heartbreaking experience for both of them. To have her dreams quite literally broken, and refused on her behalf by someone else.. His mouth tugs into an uneasy frown at the guilt he feels.. If it had been him as her father, he might just have said the same thing. Even with his ways changing, he fears he’ll always see girls weaker than they actually are. She has hopes of recovering though, and Sanji really admires her strength in that way. 

Zoro is an amazing person, he thinks, for adjusting his dreams around his sister, in order for them both to become happy and achieve something in their lives. The bond between the siblings feels intense, even through the paper currently resting in his hands. Traditional swordsmanship is not a common practice in these days either, which is all the more impressive to the blonde. His pen pal mentioned a scar from his match, and from the description it was a quite serious one too. 

He may or may not be morbidly curious as to what it looks like.

Granted he will probably never in his life ask to see it though. That was way past the boundaries of newly-formed friendship, let alone long distance pen pals. He would technically be asking him for a topless photo for him to keep.

Not that he wouldn’t say  _ no _ to one, but he certainly won’t  _ ask for it. _

Which brings him to the final, and main, reason why he had yet to reply to Zoro’s letter: the guy asked him what type of guy he was interested in.

Alarm bells constantly rang in his head as his mind balks, unable to comprehend that Zoro was taking interest.  _ He’s interested! He wants to know what kinda guy you like! _ One part of his mind screams.  _ He’s just being polite, he probably couldn’t think of a better question to give to you!  _ Another replies monotonously. The centre of his thoughts was stuck in between, and by then Sanji could barely keep himself from whimpering uncontrollably and hiding under the duvet. Which he’s done two days in a row already. No; this time when his mind starts to crumble, he does the slightly better thing than hide:

Run to Kei, panicking.

 

He rushes from his room to Kei’s, barely brushing the door with a knock before slamming the door open and closed around him, and diving onto the messy double bed. He has himself wrapped up in the duvet and whimpering quietly before Kei even has time to turn around fully from their desk.

“Sanji?” They ask, a heavy frown forming as they pull their headphones out of their ears and pause their music. Leaving the chair and standing up from the desk, the redhead stretches quickly before crawling onto their bed next to the huddled, shaky form of their friend. They sit themselves with their back against the pillowed wall and pulls the massive bundle towards them, murmuring under their breath soothing words in his ears. To anyone else, Kei may seem too expressionless or detached from emotional outbursts to be of any comfort, but to Sanji that wasn’t the case at all. Kei comforted him loyally; steadfast and calm, repeating words and phrases he recognised to be comforting, and the bony arm wrapped around his shoulders was warm and familiar. The hand in his hair, scratching his scalp in slow rhythmic beats helped him regain his focus, both in mind and in breathing. He wasn’t hysterical, or in tears, but all the same they gave him 100% of their attention. They didn’t let themselves get dragged in with the anxiety and panicking, but remained empathetic none the less.

 

It’s a good few minutes before he’s calm enough to talk, and talk he does. He explains the letter, letting Kei take it from his sweaty hand and read it through themselves. 

“I think.. I actually like him.” he admits quietly as Kei finishes reading. “Maybe I’m just happy he’s kinda interested. But I think I like him.”

Kei’s face twists in thought, wrinkling their nose and twisting their lips from side to side as they mull over what to say. 

“Well, I definitely think you guys have something going on.” 

“That’s  _ so _ helpful.”

“Shut up, you came to me for help, remember.”

“Then be  _ helpful. _ ”

Kei rolls their eyes. “Well to me, it seems like he’s interested in you, which is good, right?”

“Yeah, but is he asking because he’s interested personally or just asking ‘cause he’s curious?”

“That  _ is _ a tough one. But you wouldn’t be curious if you weren’t interested right?”

“...true,” Sanji mumbles, snuggling into the duvet a bit.

“Listen, I get the feeling that this guy isn’t the type to ask personal questions without reason,” Kei rationalises. “He’s a strict-formalities type: be polite, relevant questions and answers, careful tone of language when writing. But he’s been breaking that by being more in depth with you, and telling you private things about himself to you. So at the very least he’s now your friend. And while there’s a chance that he’s asking as a friend, only people who swing the same way as you ask specifically for your type. Meaning he’s interested.”

Sanji really didn’t want to argue with that, so he nodded instead. A small flutter of hope appeared in his stomach the same time the nerves did.

“So.. how do I reply?” Sanji unravelled himself from the duvet a little to sit up. He was starting to overheat under the thick quilt and to his surprise, realised he’d had his face on Kei’s stomach. He shoved the curious questions of Kei’s body out of his mind as soon as they arrived, and instead went to fix his messy hair.

“Well, I’d say be honest, but don’t specify too much on things you like about Zoro. So write as if you’ve never met Zoro and just your type in general. You do have a general type right?”

He shrugs. “Kinda. But I guess writing ‘someone who makes me happy’ would be too short of a summary right?” he chuckles.

Kei stares at him. “No duh.”

“Right.” with a sigh, Sanji tries to think about it.

“You could hint at him a little,” Kei suggested. “Say something you know that he does or something. So like ‘someone athletic’.”

Sanji blinked at them in surprise. “You’re being surprisingly helpful. I know I asked you, but like… I was expecting a ‘stop being a twat’ kind of answer.” He narrowed his eyes at them. “What’s up?”

Kei shifts. “Nothing.”

“Oh that is so not nothing!” Sanji grins, poking the redhead in the leg repeatedly. “Tell me tell me tell me!”

He manages to hit a nerve with them, as Kei sighs dramatically and smacks his hand away.

“I’m interested in someone.” they bite out. “There!”

“Ohh!” the blonde bounces excitedly. “Who? Since when? What are they like?”

“I don’t wanna tell you,” they grumble. “They’re a girl..”

“Oh,” Sanji blinks in surprise. “But I wouldn’t flirt with someone I know my friend’s interested in. That’s breaking bro code,” he jokes, making Kei smirk a little. 

“Fine! Her name is Alice, she’s our year, and in my sign language class as an instructor.” they sighed out. “She’s deaf, and even though she has hearing aids she likes teaching people to sign. She’s studying music and wants to be a DJ.”

“Wait, she’s studying music even though she’s deaf?”

“She can hear a bit with her aids, but it’s more muted than our normal levels. Which is actually great for DJ-ing if you think about it: they usually have to wear protective ear pieces to stop themselves going deaf when performing.”

“Oh, yeah. I guess that is quite good.” Sanji bounces a bit. “So what does she look like?”

The redhead rolls their eyes a little, before scooting across the bed and grabbing their phone. They sign into their Facebook and Sanji realises they could’ve seen that person on Kei’s friends list already. They hold the screen up to him, showing him the profile picture of a girl he doesn’t recognise.

She has warm chocolate skin, like hot cocoa, and is covered in spatterings of freckles. There’s a beauty spot below her bottom lip on the left side of her chin, and three earrings in her left ear. The left side of her head is shaved quite short until just behind her ear, and the rest is messy, wavy green locks like ivy vines . Her eyes are a soft plum-purple. In the photo, she’s pictured in a light blue plaid shirt with a black waistcoat buttoned over it, nicely slimming her modest chest and pear-shaped hips. 

“She’s stunning!” Sanji murmured in awe. Of course Kei would have an amazing taste in women. They had an amazing taste in everything.

“She’s so funny too. Cheeky and witty and just a bit flirty,” Kei smiles down at their phone wistfully. “She’s told me she likes girls. But I didn’t ask if she’d date a genderfluid person..” they sigh again. “Anyway. That’s a problem for another day. Time for you to reply to your letter!”

The blonde teen groans in response.

“Come on, you might as well get it over with. You're behind by a day too.”

 

It’s a struggle, but the pair of them finally get the letter written. Sanji reads it out loud to Kei for a final edit:

 

**_“To Zoro,_ **

**_I’m really sorry to hear about Kuina’s circumstances, and I hope and wish for her full recovery. I hope she keeps her unbreakable positivity and spirit as she continues her treatments and regains the use of her legs._ **

**_It’s truly admirable how you’ve based your ambitions on something so closely connected to your sister, and clearly the bond between you and her is a deep one. Sibling bonds can be close or distant, usually the latter, but your dedication to her goes beyond simply brotherly love, and I really do admire that._ **

**_I’m surprised by your interest, but I don’t really know my type, if I’m honest. I think if I had to say, I would look for someone who was physically fit, eats healthily and heartily - a good appetite is appealing - but someone who doesn’t mind a junk food binge on occasion. I would want to feel like I’m equal to my partner, or on the same level with them. We have equally good talents and flaws, and suit each other, kind of thing. They have to be kind, trustworthy/loyal, and can make me laugh,  and I’d want to be able to be 100% myself around them. Other than that, I’m not fussed about appearances or fashion sense, etc._ **

**_So - a fitness instructor with physiotherapy qualifications? Besides the obvious, what kind of classes do you take in college to get that sort of degree? Do you have a favourite class or a hated class?_ **

 

**_Reply soon._ **

**_Sanji”_ **

 

It’s pitifully short compared to their last couple of letters, and Sanji berates himself over it mentally. Verbally, he simply sighs.

 

“You’re a chicken.” Kei states obviously.

“I know,” Sanji nods.

“It would’ve been a lot easier on the both of you if you just ask him the same back!” they groan, flopping onto the back, limbs spread tiredly. 

“I can’t…. Not yet,” Sanji mutters quietly. Kei regards his expression for a moment, before sighing.

“Ah, what the hell,” they get up and start picking up a few things. “Let’s go shopping.”

“I have to make dinner soon,” Sanji frowns.

“We’ll just have a takeaway night tonight. Come on, retail therapy will do you good.” 

Deciding that they’ve been healthy enough this week, Sanji agreed. He got changed into some fresh clothes, stuck on a beanie to cover his messy locks, and left a note in the kitchen for their other roommates about dinner. The duo left a few minutes later.

 

In town, the pair play their usual game: find something the other would like. It was relatively easy for Sanji; the redhead reads a lot of manga and fanfiction in their spare time, so getting something in relation to that was what he’d usually go for. The only problem was what Kei was into at the moment, and what characters they like. Kei had it much harder, because Sanji liked random things depending on their uses or even just how they looked. Cooking related things was a way to go, but Sanji already owned top-of-the-range utensils and Kei had no idea what else would he would have need for. 

They split off and the blonde heads for their local anime/manga merch shop. He’d seen some of the fanart Kei had reblogged on their Tumblr recently, so he reckoned he had two to chose from. As he looked around, he inwardly thanked Kei for the trip. Their shopping game was always good at destressing them both when they had too much to think about, and it kept his mind from the letter, which he posted on the way into the shopping centre. He picks up a little figurine, about the size of his thumb, of a boy wearing a volleyball uniform with a gaming device in his hands. It looked cute, and reminded him a bit of Kei themselves, so he went ahead and bought it. He slipped the box and receipt into his coat pocket and returned to the meeting spot, where Kei was already waiting.

They swap; Kei hands him a tin plastic bag and he hands them the figurine in its box.

“Awesome! Kenma is one of my favourites,” the redhead grins happily, and Sanji guesses that was the character’s name. He opens up the little bag and inside is a hair scrunchie. He takes it from the bag. It’s quite big, in a frilly sense, and blue with white polka dots. 

“Really?” he smirks down at his shorter friend. 

They shrug. “Your hair’s been getting pretty long. You’ll need to tie it up when cooking or training.”

Sanji grins in response. “It’s cute, I like it.” 

“I knew you would,” Kei laughs, and then they pocket their presents and head into the food court section of the centre, eager on getting some takeaway.

 

* * *

 

**West Blue (a couple days later)**

 

Zoro was currently contemplating just how much he regrets asking Sanji about his type. 

He's been dealing with it as best he could using his usual method: vigorous exercise and workout regimens. 

Dammit, what was he thinking?! He was way too forward, he thinks to himself, lifting weights nearly three times the size of his head as he glared at himself in the gym’s wall mirror. The rhythmic lifting and lowering of the heavy object helped him focus on his mortified thoughts. He seemed way too interested. What kind of stranger asks that? They weren’t even close, in the literal and figurative sense. They shared some personal information to each other and that was about it. They probably wouldn’t get along in person, maybe they’d even walk straight past each other, different friend groups and different lives. 

_ Well,  _ he thinks,  _ there’s only one more month of mandatory letter writing left. Just have to stick through it and then it can stop. _

He tried not to think about how that made him feel, and added another weight to either side of his bar, starting his routine again from zero.

 

It’s nearly 10pm when he gets back to the flat. He only got turned around once on the way back, meaning his late return was actually because of how long he’d been at the gym. Nami, sat on the couch watching TV, gives him a concerned glance as he shuts the door and kicks off his shoes.  

“You’ve been coming home really late this week,” she states, trying to sound casual, but Zoro does notice the edge in her voice.

“I’ve been slacking on my exercise, so I was catching up on some training with Johnny and Yosaku.” he shrugs back, going into the kitchen to grab a glass of milk and a packet of lightly salted mixed nuts.

“Well that’s.. Okay, I guess,” he heard the girl sigh. “But you missed the mailman while you were out, your letter’s on your bed.”

He tries not to sprint to his room, really. But Nami’s snort of amusement follows him down the hall anyway.

 

He reads it through, lots of thoughts going through his head at once. Sanji’s type…. It’s not him. He can’t match what Sanji wants.

Physically fit? Sure, he’s definitely that.

Eats a lot? Yeah, he eats quite a lot, not like Luffy though.

Healthy eating? Not really, he can only do bare minimum ‘healthy’ recipes like salads, or smoothies. He usually just avoids fatty foods as much as possible but otherwise doesn’t bother. And Sanji is a chef in training, he’d be disgusted with his diet.

Is he Sanji’s equal? Hardly. He snorts at the thought. He was a musclehead with a poor diet, bad attitude, with average grades and average social life, and an apparently bad drinking habit. He wasn’t exactly what people looked for in their partners.

Was he a kind and trustworthy? He wasn’t sure. His friends were used to his blunt and sarcastic personality, and the way he doesn’t sugar coat his opinions. He can keep secrets, sure, but if someone tells him a secret that was offensive or a danger to someone, then he wouldn’t hesitate to say something to them or tell someone else, like the authorities. 

He was loyal. Luffy could tell him he accidentally killed someone and he’d probably help hide the body. His friends and his family were the only people he was 100% loyal to, because he could put his absolute faith in them, and they could do the same with him. 

He doubts he could make the blonde laugh though. He has a kind of humour that not everyone gets along with and he’d probably insult the guy more often than not.

Could he make the guy feel comfortable enough around him to be 100% himself around him? Probably not. They were more or less strangers still anyway.

 

Sanji said he didn’t care for appearances much either. So it’s not like he can win any points with his appearance to make up for what he lacks with the rest of Sanji’s ideals that way.

 

He tosses the letter onto his bedside table and switches the lights off, stripping off to just his underwear and diving under the duvet. He didn’t feel hungry or even the slightest bit tired. He just wanted to will himself to sleep before his mind could get any more negative than it already was. Because instead of asking him the same question back, like they usually do, Sanji completely switched the topic.

He wasn’t interested in knowing what type Zoro liked, meaning Zoro probably did cross a line in asking him, and Sanji wasn’t interested.

He feels slightly numb, cursing his own stupidity, and tries to sleep.

 

He sleeps through nearly the whole following day, and thankfully he didn’t miss any classes since it was a Saturday. He reads a little after 7pm on his bedside clock, and gets out of bed to stretch and do some quick exercises to wake up.

When he leaves his room, he nearly trips over Luffy, who was sat cross-legged on the hallway floor, deep in thought.

“What the hell, Luffy?” the green haired teen groans.

“Hey Zoro,” Luffy mumbles, still thinking hard.

“What’s up with you?” Zoro replies, confused. Luffy is never usually this quiet. 

“I feel strange.” the darker haired teen replies, then stands up. He turns to Zoro and leans into him, giving him a firm hug. Not his usual, crush-your-ribcage-hug, but a slightly lengthy, almost intimate kind of hug. Zoro kept stock still.

Luffy let go after a moment, humming under his breath.

“Not with you, either,” he mutters.

“What’s up Lu?” Zoro asks, slightly worried.

“I’m trying to tell the difference,” he gets in response.

“Between?”

“Well, Nami said ages ago that there are different types of love. And that when you meet someone you love-love, it feels different to the nakama love I feel for all my friends.” the younger teen explained. “I thought she was being silly but… maybe not.”

With that, the boy walked around Zoro, still in thought, and returned to his room.

Puzzled, Zoro continued into the living room, where Nami and Usopp peered at him, having heard the conversation. 

“You got a hug too?” Usopp asked, to which Zoro nodded.

“He’s been super strange recently,” Nami tells them. “I caught him eating an apple the other day.”

“What?! That’s a fruit!” Usopp gasped.   
Zoro was also surprised. Though mostly, he felt kind of guilty. Luffy was going through some weird phase and he hasn’t been around to even notice, leaving Nami and Usopp to worry over both him and Zoro too, since he’d been going straight to the gym every day after classes this week.  He clamped down on the guilt and went to the kitchen to make something to eat. Nami followed him in a few minutes later, as he was eating a plain ham sandwich.

She stares at him silently for a minute or so, which irritates him a bit, but finally she clears whatever thoughts about him she was having and speaks.

“So… I had that date with Vivi today,” she speaks slowly, a little bit embarrassed.

“Oh?” he responds; he’d actually completely forgotten. “How’d it go?”

Nami brightens up. “It was super cute! We went to this little cafe, it was painted all pastel colours and was made to look like those cutesy beach huts, and we had some really nice fruit smoothies, and then after we went shopping, and got matching bracelets, and then we had a walk down by the riverbank and got some ice cream.” she gushes, a happy look on her face. The date itself was not something he’d thought Nami would usually go for in her dates with (rich) guys, so even with just this information he could tell that the orangette was really interested in Vivi. 

“I’m really happy for you,” he tells her honestly, with a small smile, before yawning and clearing away his empty plate. 

“Thanks…” she trails off, and he could feel her watching him again as he quickly rinse and washed the plate. “Are you going to tell me what Sanji wrote?”

“Not really anything to tell,” he shrugged. 

“You’re acting even more depressed than when you were exercising all your nerves away while waiting for it,” she points out, and he sighs.

“In my last letter I asked what his type of guy was,” he snapped out grumpily. “And I’m not it. I’m not anything he wrote about.” He gives her a pointed glare, probably a bit too sharp considering it wasn’t her fault, but he was more upset about it than he’d admit. And Nami was the one that convinced him it could work out, after all.

Her eyes widen a little, but mostly she just looks upset for him, rather than because of him snapping at her. 

“Are…. are you sure? Maybe you’re just focusing too hard on things you don’t like about yourself?” she mumbles, furrowing her brows.

“Read it yourself, I know you want to,” he shrugs, and she dashes off. In the meantime he grabs a couple bags of doritos and starts on them, feeling listless but also a need to stuff his face and ignore his upset feelings twisting in his gut. 

She returns a moment later, reading as she enters the room and sits at the kitchen table next to him.

“Zoro, I have no idea why you think you don’t match any of this,” she scolded. “You  _ are _ physically fit, eat all the time-” she pointed stares at the doritos in his hands “- and you try and mind what you eat. Sometimes. You are definitely his equal, you’re equal to all of us! Nothing about you makes you less than someone else. And you are kind in your own way; you don’t sweat the small stuff but you are a good listener and we all trust you as our friend, you know all of our histories and personal stuff. You make us laugh, even if you don’t mean too because sometimes just your antics with Luffy and Usopp can make me laugh. Sometimes your thick-headedness is funny too,” she winks and gives him a smirk.

It’s enough to lighten his mood. She continues in this fashion, talking about all the things she likes about him in relation to what Sanji wrote, and even with the intended insult here and there, she does brighten his mood a lot. Nami and Zoro may not get along a lot of the time, but he knew that they would support each other through thick and thin. 

“Honestly Zoro… hey! Listen to this bit at least!” she snaps her fingers at him with a pout. “You should reply honestly to him.”

“He changed the subject,” Zoro pointed out.

“It doesn’t matter! You can answer your own questions in letters, it’s normal. Like: ‘hey how are you? I’m fine’ kinda thing right?”

“Except normal people don’t write: ‘hey what type of guy do you like? My type is you, by the way.” he deadpanned sarcastically. Nami grins at him and it takes him a moment to realise that not only did he just admit that Sanji was his type of guy, but also that she was looking behind him too. He turns and sees that Usopp was listening in on them and also heard him.

“Not. A. Word. From. Either. Of. You.” he bit out, but it was no use. Both of them starting ‘awwwhh’-ing at him and giggling like idiots.

“A-anyway,” Usopp sighed with a chuckle. “I agree with Nami. It wouldn’t hurt to tell him your side of things too right? And from the sounds of it you match some of his interests, he might just match some of yours.”

“Or all of them, since you think he’s your type,” Nami wiggles her eyebrows.

He rolls his eyes at both of them, snatching up the letter and leaving the kitchen.

“Oh, wait! Zoro!” Nami bounces after him. “There’s one more thing!”

“Whaaaaattttt,” he sighs dramatically.

“Vivi invited me out tonight to meet some of her friends as her date,” Nami blushed happily. “She said I can bring a friend, and you know some of her friends too I think. Ace and Sabo?”

“Yeah, I know Ace better than Sabo though,” he agrees.

“Great! Then you won’t mind coming along right?” she smirks up at him.

“...I guess.”

“Well, we’re being picked up at 9-” the clock on the living room wall read 8:07, “-so have a shower, because you still smell from your workout yesterday. Dress nice!”

He simply rolls his eyes.

  
  


Zoro’s definition of dressing nice was some clean black jeans; not designed to be skinny fit but felt that way stretched over his muscles; and a plain grey t-shirt; also a tight fit. His wardrobe wasn’t all that colourful.

Apparently Nami’s definition of dressing nice was a high-necked black dress with a burned velvet pattern all over it, and some simple lace-up high heels. Her hair, which she was in the process of growing long, flowed to her elbows in loose curls. She walks into his room, looks him up and down and rolls her eyes.

“I said nice not casual.”

Zoro frowns. “This is both.”

She sighs and ignores him, choosing to go through his closet instead. She pulls out a white button up - probably an old school uniform shirt, actually; he didn’t sort through his clothes often - and throws it at him to wear over the t-shirt. 

“Put that on, then let me take a photo of you.” she declares. Zoro was still tired from waking up less than two hours ago, and wanted to get something else to eat before they left, so he didn’t bother to argue. He stands with his arms crossed across his chest whilst Nami took multiple shots of him, sighing and glaring at the orangette when she flounces up to him to take a selfie with him too. Eventually she leaves to go collect her handbag and Zoro slips on some clean trainers and heads to the kitchen for another ham sandwich.

Luffy and Usopp are battling on Street Fighter as he goes past, and don’t seem to mind him. Luffy also seems to have figured out whatever he was thinking about, because he’s acting his usual self again, which pleased the green-haired teen.

He scoffs down another sandwich and a glass of water before the doorbell rings and Luffy jumps up, yelling for his brother. Ace is, in fact, at the door and the boys share energetic hugs and hellos and catch up for a moment. Ace is away often since he was only a part time college student, now that he’s in his final year. Vivi is there too, and Nami greets her with pecks on the cheeks and a bashful hug. Vivi herself is looking gorgeous, Zoro admits, in a figure-hugging, high neck dress that matched the blue of her hair and was patterned with colour roses and other flowers. A guy Zoro didn’t know and Sabo remained standing just outside the doorway, and the teen gave the two of them a casual nod, which they returned.

Ace detaches himself from his younger brother and after chatting with him and Usopp for a couple more minutes, turns to Zoro and grins.

“It’s my favourite mosshead!” he cheers, causing Zoro grin tiredly. They shake hands and bump shoulders like Ace always insisted on doing, and the teenager even receives a sloppy kiss on the cheek from the freckled, older student.  _ Seems like someone was already pre-drinking…  _ A moment later Ace’s eyes roll back and his narcolepsy kicks in, though thankfully Zoro was fully prepared and catches him.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get fully used to this…” he mutters, lifting Ace up onto his back with the help of Usopp and Luffy, who laugh. With this, the group leaves, heading over in a couple of cars to Vivi’s private dormitory.  

 

The stranger was a man named Kohza, one of Vivi’s childhood friends. They all pre-drink for a while, talking back and forth, and when Ace wakes up again the group walk together off the college premises and to the nearest club, where time passes for Zoro in a hazy blur of drinks and loud music. He was glad he ate before they left, because Ace refused to stop buying him drinks, and Nami always demanded a showdown of shots, trying to impress Vivi, and there were people everywhere that knew Ace that insisted on buying him, and whoever was closest to him, meaning Zoro, a drink. He may have recently learned that his tolerance was exceptional, but it was getting to his head a little all the same, so he left the floor to go to the bathroom a couple of times to pee and splash his face with water. Everytime he came back, his drunken roommate would shout at him in happiness and squish up to him, taking more ridiculous selfies before going to dance intimately with Vivi again. 

 

Thankfully they leave at about 4am, and take taxis back to Vivi’s. Ace is immediately asleep when they get in the taxi, leaving Zoro to take care of his share of the fare. He didn’t mind; the dark haired man paid for most of his drinks tonight after all. They had a kind-of close relationship, since he knew him through Luffy, and had hung out with him after school back in the day. 

At Vivi’s the group of them settle in the living room with an empty bottle from earlier and decide to play Spin The Bottle Truth or Dare. Ace conveniently wakes up when Zoro throws him on the couch and announces how eager he is to smooch everyone in the group (apart from Sabo, who was like a brother to him).

It gets to the point in the the game where the spinner, Vivi, spins the bottle and it does, in fact, land on Ace. Zoro can already tell by the glancing who Vivi will pick.

“Alright Ace! Since you always pick dare anyway, I dare you…. to kiss Zoro!” Vivi claps excitedly. Nami’s drunken smile wavers a bit in surprise, but she seems to not fully realise what the blunette said and cheers along with the others. 

 

Normally, he would just agree. It wouldn’t be the first time he and Ace have kissed because of this kind of game. In fact, if he thought hard about it, Ace was probably his first proper kiss too, back when they played this game in high school. But this time was different. There was a pang in his chest as he watched the older teen struggle to sit up from his lounged position.

Guilt.

He genuinely feels like he’d be betraying his feelings for Sanji if he kisses Ace.

As said man sways his way over, Zoro reaches out to steady him, and whispers to him urgently.

“Can it uh… not be on the mouth? I have someone I like right now, so…” he trails off worriedly.

“No worries!” Ace replies, a little too loudly, what with everyone already paying attention to them. He proceeds to roughly grab the moss-haired teen’s cheeks, and plant the wettest, sloppiest kiss on the side of his mouth, in a way that made it seem like it was full-on to the others, who whooped and hollered at them. Zoro mutters a thanks and Ace grins at him in reply, before he turns and throws himself at Sabo, yelling ‘catch me!’ and causing a panic. 

 

They get home some time a couple hours later, and Zoro, still buzzing from the alcohol, decides he would reply to Sanji’s letter right this moment. Who cares if Sanji didn’t ask him what his type was? He was gonna find out anyway!  Zoro nearly falls off his chair the moment he sits on it, but manages to pull himself to the desk anyway. He makes a sloppy couple of attempts but on his fourth or fifth try, he thinks he managed quite well. He’s trying to fold it into an envelope when his door opens.

 

Usopp wanders into his room with a glass of water, and notices him with his notepad.

“Thought you could use this. What you up to?”

“I’m gonna tell Sanji he’s my type. Wait, no. I asked him his type but he didn’t ask me back, but I’m gonna tell him anyway.” Zoro fumbled a little.

“Riight.” Usopp set the glass down on the table. “Well why don’t you drink that first before you try writing anymore, and then get some sleep.” The curly-haired teen leaves the room again with a wave.

Zoro downs the water gratefully, and after a few moments of his mind clearing up a little, he refocuses on the paper in front of him.

 

**Sanji, you didn’t ask me but I wanted to tell you my type since you like guys and I like guys too. See I like guys like you that are tall and skinny but not too much and can fight or be strong, but they can’t be all bulky like me, pretty faces are neat too. You’re pretty cool looking and you seem very nice and kind and I like that, so if you asked me my type I would say you. Yep.**

 

It finishes there but in Zoro’s less muddled head he was glad he didn’t get any further than that. His writing is super messy and the fact that it was completely centred on Sanji only made him feel embarrassed. He got up and dropped onto his bed instead, deciding to sleep on it before he wrote anything else mortifying.

 

A couple of hours later, Zoro woke up again. It was about 10:30 in the morning and he had maybe 3 hours sleep. Glancing at his desk, he noticed it was missing something.

The letter was gone.

“USOPP!? NAMI, ANYONE!” he called out, the noise hurting his head but he didn’t care. “WHO TOOK THE LETTER FROM MY DESK??”

“Ahh, Zoro! You’re awake!” Luffy grinned, bouncing into his doorway. “I saw that you finished your letter to Sanji when you got back, so I wrote his address on the envelope and put it in the post for you!” 

 

Needless to say, Zoro had never managed to write an essay, envelope it, address it, get dressed and sprint to a post box in under ten minutes before. Until now. 

 

* * *

**Extra:**

Despite his best efforts, the postman could not find the first letter in amongst the others he took from the post box, and so Zoro could only hope and pray that Sanji would read the other, official one first. Or if he was really lucky, it wouldn’t arrive at all. Hah. As if he had that kind of luck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if it seems rushed, and again, tenses are not my strongest point. Hopefully you'll forgive me for it being mostly ZoSan centred but I did add a little NaVi and LaLu ish scenes in there too.   
> Please let me know what you think UwU


	6. *Actual plot development happens*

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the chapter title says, really. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BIG NEWS PLEASE READ.
> 
> If you've been reading this fic and enjoying it, I have GREAT news for you!! My bestie mustangisinflames and I HAVE JUST PUBLISHED A NEW ZOSAN FANFIC. To summarise:
> 
> -Royal/Bandit/Fantasy!AU  
> -slow romance/start as enemies Zosan (duh)  
> -Law/Sanji bromance + bonding!!  
> -Elves  
> -There is war and angst, so much angst  
> -And lots of humour and funny moments bc I love witty Sanjo  
> -CHAPTER ART! WE DRAW SCENES FROM THE FICS
> 
> The fic is called Midwinter Song and can be found on my profile (Kaiisan) and mustangisinflames's profile!!

**West Blue**

 

Zoro returned back to his dorm, defeated.

The letters were sent.

He took off his shoes and shut the door behind him; he could only hope that his second letter would arrive at the same time as the first one, and maybe Sanji would read it first. Luffy gave him an apologetic look as he dragged himself back towards his room, but Zoro stopped him from saying anything like ‘sorry’ with a shrug and a hand in the younger boy’s hair. It seemed to ease the his conscious a bit.

For now, all Zoro could do was wait.

And sleep off the rest of the alcohol.

 

**North Blue, a couple days later.**

 

Kaya was the one to collect the letters that evening. From his position on the couch, the blonde watched her sift through them. She handed him over a letter with a curious expression on her face.

“Sanji, here.” She held it up. “It’s for you, but I’m quite sure it’s Luffy’s writing. It matches Law’s letter.” She waved the other letter in her hand.

Upon inspection, he agreed. “I wonder if it’s Luffy writing to me?”

He opened it up, and the single page inside was recognisable to be Zoro’s handwriting.

“Huh? No, this is Zoro’s…” He read the simple letter through quickly, heart thumping ever louder as he processed the contents. “Holy shit.”

Kaya leaned down over the back of the couch to read over his shoulder. “Wow, what bad handwriting…” she giggled, then sucked in a sharp breath as she actually read the short message on the page. “Oh, Sanji! It’s a confession!”

“It… is,” he breathed, in disbelief. “But that’s not his usual handwriting… was he drunk?” He frowned, not wanting to celebrate until he could be sure. But it was hard; his heart was in his throat, and he wanted nothing more to jump up and down on the spot.

Another part of him saw the sloppy handwriting, the grammatical errors and lack of punctuation, and concluded that this wasn’t Zoro’s sober thoughts. He was probably intoxicated and probably wouldn’t have written it with a clear head.

“It doesn’t matter!” Kaya laughed. “A confession is a confession!” With a happy giggle, she gave Sanji a quick peck on the cheek before she left to find Law, and read her own letter in private.

Sanji was inclined to believe her.

 

The following morning, as Sanji left his room relatively early to start on breakfasts and lunches, he spotted something at the front door, hidden slightly under the lowest shelf on the shoe rack. He scratched at his stomach absently as he stooped to pick it up, and realised it was another letter. This one had very familiar, rushed handwriting. Turning it around to the seal, he realised there was some extra writing there.

 

**PLEASE READ ME FIRST!!**

 

A hard lump formed in his chest, and it took him a moment to notice that he was barely breathing and his lungs needed air. 

_ Zoro was drunk, wrote down some random things about me on a page. Luffy thinks it’s his letter and sends it for him. He finds out when it’s too late, _ Sanji tells himself in dread.

Shakily, he slipped the letter into his pajama pants pocket and carried on into the kitchen, eager to quickly distract himself. He played some loud music on his phone as he beat eggs, scrambling them and making enough for everyone to eat for breakfast. He made bacon for himself and Law, and set up plates for everyone to use, as well as ketchup, salt and pepper, and maple syrup for Kei, who had a sweet tooth when it came to scrambled eggs.  As he prepared his friends lunch, they all started to file in, thanking him as they went. When he finished, he ate quickly and told them to leave their plates for him to clean. His mind was whirring and he really didn’t want to have to read the second letter, which could very well be a denial of the first letter’s confessions.

 

“I’ll do them,” Kei offered, taking their empty plate over to the sink. Sanji went to argue but the redhead silenced them with a look. “You’re distracted; something’s bothering you that you wanna avoid. Get it over with, dumbass, it’s probably not as bad as you think.” They shoo him away with skilled pokes to his sides, and he half-skittered away to his room. He usually enjoyed being friends with Kei, who knew him so well, but it was at times like these that he wished they didn’t.

 

The letter still burned away in his pocket, and after five minutes of pacing and procrastination, he finally opened it.

 

**Shit Sanji I’m so sorry about that other letter. I promise I was drunk and I wasn’t thinking properly, just writing whatever came to mind and I didn’t even reply to anything you wrote, shit. Luffy sent it while I was passed out and thought he was doing me a favour but I guess he didn’t notice how crap and unfinished the letter was. I’m sorry if this caused you any trouble, I’ll explain:**

**That night I went out with Nami and her date and a few friends, it was super crazy and I drank WAY more than I usually do, I know I can hold my alcohol but I was distracted all night and ended up mixing my drinks… it got crazy. When we came back we all started playing drinking games, and Spin the Bottle was one of them, and everyone chose dare and shared kisses.. Luffy’s brother Ace was there, and he was dared to kiss me… and I couldn’t do it. I could only think of you and I couldn’t kiss him. It felt wrong, like I was betraying you if I did, which probably sounds really weird, sorry.**

**Uh, favourite class would probably be Psychology, it’s pretty interesting. Legislation or anything to do with laws and legalities of rehab/medication/physiotherapy is probably my least favourite since it’s boring.**

**Hey so, I know this is the last month of the mandatory letters, and we probably only have to write a couple more letters each, but do you wanna maybe keep writing anyway? If you want. The thing is I’m actually really interested in getting to know you better and I want to know more about you, if you’ll let me. I wasn’t exactly lying in my other letter, either… I just didn’t want to tell you like that. Sorry.**

**But yeah, that’s the truth. Please reply.**

**Zoro**

 

Sanji, for a moment, thought he might faint. But he didn’t, thankfully. Instead, he got dressed and got ready for his morning classes. He still felt numb in surprise, but as he went to brush his hair and teeth in the bathroom, he caught sight of how red his ears were under his golden locks, and the grin that threatened to turn up his lips. His heart felt so much lighter now.

* * *

 

After lunch, in his free period, the blonde wandered over to the university’s medical department to see Law, as the different departments had different lunch times. He passed by Kaya’s class on his way up to the second year’s floor, though he doesn’t see her.

Law was reading when he finally found him.

“Hey, Law, can I ask you about something?”

The teen in question closed his book, looking up at him with a smirk. “I’m not an official doctor yet, I can’t diagnose you.”

He rolled his eyes. “Dumbass. I wanna know if Luffy wrote anything about me or Zoro in his letter?”

“Ah.” Law’s smirked shifted. “Yeah, something about posting Zoro’s letter for him while he was asleep, to do him a favour. Was something wrong?”

“Ahh, no, not really,” the blonde scratched at the hair on his nape. Kei was right, his hair was getting pretty long now. Maybe it needed a cut. “Just that I found a second one that Zoro sent the same day, saying it was just a draft, and wasn’t meant to be sent. There’s nothing bad, just wanted to know if Luffy wrote anything about it.” he shrugged. “How are you guys doing, anyway?”

“We’re good, I guess.” Law narrowed his eyes a little, suspicious. “Why?”

“You guys write, like, a shit ton.” Sanji grinned at the other student. “And from what I know from Zoro and what you’ve told me yourself, he’s just a goofy kid. So what’s with the pages and pages?”

It was Law’s turn to shift about awkwardly. After some hesitation, he replied. “I.. don’t actually know. It’s like you say: he’s an idiot, and he’s so infuriating, he gets on my nerves. His spelling is horrendous. But sometimes he’ll write about something unusual and interesting, I just get caught up in his theories and ideas, even if it’s just to explain how impossible they are.”

Law paused for a moment with a sigh and shake of his head. He has a drink of water from the bottle next to him and continued. “He even tries to talk about my medical course. He doesn’t understand even half the things he asks about when I explain them, and yet he thinks it’s cool or interesting anyway. I really don’t get him.” A twitch of his lip turned into a small smile. “He’s a good kid though.”

“Not a kid, really,” Sanji grinned at his friend. “He’s the same age as us, even if he doesn’t act it.” 

“Are you trying to suggest something?” Law quirked a brow at him.

“Nope,” came the blonde’s light-hearted reply. They said their goodbyes, as both Sanji’s free period and Law’s lunch period were about to end, and Sanji left to return to the culinary department. There was definitely something going on between Law and Luffy, even if the two of them didn’t realise it. And there was something between Usopp and Kaya too! Sanji didn’t want to pry into his friends’ businesses, but he did want to support them. He hoped there was something between himself and Zoro too. 

 

* * *

 

College work crept up on Sanji like a silent tide, and he’d spent the last couple of days playing catch-up. He didn’t mind though, in fact, he was still buzzing from Zoro’s letters. 

_ He likes me! He’s interested! Holy shit, we may actually have mutual interests in each other! _

He usually didn’t get so excited from such simple interactions with people, but he didn’t have much experience with guys under his belt and he was more than a little invested in trying things out with him. Maybe it helped that the guy of interest was so far away; if it were someone from one of his classes he’d either be a ridiculous, flirting mess or maybe scare them away with his snarky, ‘fight me’ playfulness. He really can’t be kind to guys, crush or no crush. 

That was another thing about the long distance that worried him, in between essays and recipe making: would they ever meet in person? Sure, there were other ways to keep in contact, but that relied on them both being available to talk with the 8-hour time difference being the main issue.

He had just finished his final, almost-overdue assignment when Kei wandered in, heading straight for Sanji’s wardrobe.

“Hey…?” Sanji drawled questionly, eyes narrowing.

“I need a tie,” the redhead muttered, going over the ties hanging neatly from a hook on the blonde’s wardrobe door. “Presentation day tomorrow.”

“What you gonna wear?”

“Black skinnies, black converse, purple button-up.”

Sanji hummed to himself, getting up from his desk and stretching. “Let me have a look for ya,” he offered, and moved the shorter teen aside to open his wardrobe, revealing a horde of formal and informal clothes, and another two racks of ties.

“A skinny tie will probably suit you best, not too long, you only need a simple knot anyway..” he trailed off, picking out a sleek silver tie and a deep maroon tie that matched Kei’s hair. “Take your pick of these two.”

Kei glanced between them, then chose the silver.

“Nice choice. Do I need to show you how to tie it?” Sanji smirked. Kei whipped the chosen tie against his upper arm. “Ouch. That’s a no then.”

“No shit. Anyway, what you been up to? You’ve been working away the last few days.” Kei glanced towards his desk. “You replied to Zoro yet?”

Sanji blinked, trying to think.  _ Shit. _ He’d been so happily distracted by the letter, and then his course work. “Umm… no,” he winced. “Course work got the better of me.. I forgot..”

Kei tie-whipped him in the same spot as before. “Man up! Go write that reply now! It better be a good one too! Make some progress already!” They whipped the tie again.

“We have!” Sanji snapped back, rubbing his arm. “He said he likes me! And he wants to keep in contact even when we don’t have to write letters anymore!” He rubbed his arm, which was starting to hurt.

Kei paused whipping the tie again, surprised. “Oh!” They grinned. “That’s great! At least he had some balls to tell you,” Their grin turned into a smirk. “What can go wrong after that kind of confession?”

“A lot, actually,” Sanji sighed, “This is me we’re talking about, after all.”

“True,” Kei agreed, laughing when Sanji used the maroon tie still in his hand to whip them. A mini tie-whipping war broke out between the two of them, which ending with Kei running out of the room to escape, cursing and laughing between breaths to ‘hurry and write that goddamn letter’. 

Well, he was done with his coursework now, he could take his time writing a good reply.

* * *

**West Blue, two days later**

 

Zoro was worried. A lot.

It’s been a week. Like, a full 7 days. It was a Saturday when his letters were sent and it was the following Saturday since then. They could’ve written to each other twice in this time, but he’s had no reply from his penpal at all.

 

“Hey, Luffy?”

“Mmppffh?” Luffy scooped spoonful after spoonful of cereal into his mouth, though thankfully he didn’t spit any of it out. He’d learned to eat with his mouth shut, at least.

“Has Law written anything about Sanji, and my letters?”

The younger teen frowned, chewing thoughtfully. He swallowed his mouthful. “I think he wrote something like ‘Sanji is thinking about a lot of things right now and hasn’t had time to write’, or something like that. And that whatever Sanji’s thinking about, ‘Zoro needs to wait until Sanji replies to him’. Something like that.”

Zoro sighed deeply, almost groaning. 

 

The front door opened a few minutes later, and Usopp staggered in from his weekly morning jog. The teen was fairly skinny despite his lack of interest in exercise, though he kept to his routine of one long run a week, as much as he hated it.

“Hey guys,” he panted, wiping sweat-soaked curls from his forehead. “I passed by the mailman on the way up.”

Zoro sprang to his feet, but hesitated. It could be that Sanji didn’t send one again. Earlier in the week had been awkward, with silent looks of sympathy when Usopp and Luffy received letters and there hadn’t been one for him. Luffy dashed past him.

“Ahh, look Zoro! Your letter finally got here!”

“That’s good, Zoro!” Usopp smiled between pants. “Looks like he wants to keep writing too?”

 

When the others got their letters earlier in the week, they told him that their pen pals agreed to continue writing with them. It was another blow to the gut for him, especially since Zoro had been very openly honest in wanting to continue writing to Sanji, only to have missed a letter from said teen. 

He took the letter from the sweaty younger teen and disappeared to his room, wanting a little privacy for what could be a huge rejection letter. Or an acceptance letter to keep writing. Or maybe a letter expressing equal interest.  _ Only one way to find out right? _ He mused as he sat on the edge of his bed, opening it.

 

**_To Zoro,_ **

**_Thank you for both of those letters. You’re probably feeling really embarrassed right now that I’ve read your drunken rambling but honestly I found it really sweet? Yeah I think that’s what I thought when I first read it, haha. I didn’t get your proper letter until the next day, and I was scared for a bit that it would be a denial of the first one, so imagine how glad I was that it wasn’t!_ **

**_I feel weird for writing like this, like I have some upper hand here. Shit, I’m actually super nervous, okay? I’m really happy right now too._ **

**_And I’m sorry I took so long to reply!! College work got the better of me. Because my main projects are usually practical, like creating recipes and such, I sometimes forget about the written work, and it all piled up. It means I forgot about the letter too._ **

**_In short, I wanna say that yes I wanna keep in contact. But as you see, I’m really bad at keeping track of written projects. So I was wondering, do you want to add me on Skype? My username is MrPrinceS03_ **

 

**_Reply, by letter or -hopefully- by Skype,_ **

**_Sanji_ **

 

“Oh crap,” he murmured, eyes going wide. “Holy crap. I need to get Skype.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yaaay!! Stuff!! Development!! Ahhh!! 
> 
> Apologies that it's super short, barely half the amount that I usually write, but I'm really pleased with how it went and I promise there will be more in the next chap!!
> 
> PLEASE leave a kind review!!!   
> Please Don't leave a comment with "Update soon/asap omg" because I LITERALLY (01/07/16) just updated it. Updates are usually within a month after the last one, and that's that! If you read the notes at the top then you'll see that I've got another fic on the go, as well as 2 fics for Fairy Tail, and other oneshots/fics I'm looking to work on.
> 
> If you want to read more, please check out Midwinter Song on my profile.


	7. You've Got (1) New Message

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, Skype is a thing.  
> Also - background shenanigans :3c

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is like a week late.

**West Blue**

 

“Hey Zoro! Get up, you’re gonna be late, my dude,” Usopp knocks before he walks in, humming whilst stuffing papers into folders into his bag, slung over his head and across him diagonally.

“What time is it..” Zoro groans, cracking an eye open sleepily. “I need to do my work out..”

“Too late for that,” Usopp wanders over and threads his long fingers into Zoro’s messy bedhead. “Your 9am is in like.. 20 minutes.” He gave him a look. “What kept you awake all night?”

“Uh..” Zoro pushes himself into a sitting position, feet hitting the floor with a thud. “I was thinking about getting Skype. Sanji says he has it and it’ll be better to use that to message each other.”

“Shit, that’s awesome man! Me and Kaya got each other’s emails now, but I think I’m gonna keep sending her stuff too,” Usopp grins, scratching a little at some short curls by his neck.

“You two are really getting along, aren’t ya?” Zoro grins back at him, causing the other boy to chuckle and back out of the room hurriedly.

“Says you. Skype has video calling, you know? Sanji basically invited you to talk in real time.” Usopp wiggles his brows at him from the doorway. “Maybe he’s got a sexy French accent.”

“Ehh, piss off already!” Zoro jokes grumpily, half-heartedly throwing a pillow at the disappearing teenager’s back.

* * *

The thuds of gloves against vinyl material ring out rhythmically in Zoro’s ears as Luffy lets out a loud ‘oof’ on impact, his arms pushing back slightly with the movement but not enough to break his form.

Taking turns practising hits on each other was how Luffy and Zoro were spending their free lunch periods today. A cancellation of classes lead to the pair having an early lunch, and with an energetic Luffy to deal with, Zoro suggested the gym.

The green haired teen completes a few more routine sets, adding a couple kicks in to try and catch his partner by surprise, but as usual, to no avail. Zoro might be bigger and stronger looking, but Luffy’s fighting prowess was nothing to underestimate. He knows how to fight, simply put; name a hand-to-hand combat style and the teen probably knew it.

When they swap gloves and arm pads and Luffy let loose a few routines of machine gun fast punches, Zoro really has to hold himself in place as the hits rain down on his arms like rapid fire. A stray kick catches him in the side, and a borderline breathless “Sorry Zoro!” escapes Luffy’s mouth like a laugh; easily, without displacing his focus on the padding on Zoro’s arms. A few minutes later, another kick nearly catches him again, on purpose this time, and Zoro uses its momentum towards his side to grab it and pull the boy attached to it onto the floor as he drops and rolls onto his back. Luffy nearly falls on top of him, but rolls across him and onto his other side, laughing.

“I thought I was going to get you again! Shishishi,” he laughs, his breath a little ragged, but with no other signs of exertion.

“Not even I fall for the same trick twice, dumbass,” Zoro snorts in response. They take a moment to catch their breath in silence.

“How is Sanji?” Luffy asks quietly, in a way that wasn’t like a serious question, more like something to say whilst daydreaming.

“Gave me his Skype contact, because he says he has a hard time with writing letters.” Zoro really wants to get off the practice mats before his sweaty skin started to stick, but he was reluctant to disturb the rare Quiet Luffy moment. “How’s Law?”

“I like him,” the younger teen replies simply, as the case always is with him. “He is interesting. And weird. And reading his letters make me feel funny in a good way. But is it Nakama love? Or Nami’s ‘Love’ love? I do not know.”

“Don’t worry too much about it,” Zoro reaches out to pat the other boy’s arm, recoiling when he comes close to smacking him in the face by accident. He didn’t realise Luffy’s head was that close by. “We’re young, it’s not like we have to have all the right answers now. We can learn these things as we get older.”

Luffy grins up at the ceiling. “Yeah!”

The pair pull themselves off the mats after a moment, complaining about the sticky sweaty clothes and mats and laughing at their messed up hair. After putting away the freshly-cleaned equipment and showering and cleaning up themselves, the pair head out again, Luffy enthusiastically singing about a second lunch.

Well, they had time for it, so Zoro wasn’t going to say no.

* * *

“There ya go,” Usopp tapped a couple keys on Zoro’s laptop. “Installed and registered. Your account name is _‘roronoaZ11’_ , and your password’s on that scrap of paper.” he gestures to the sticky note in Zoro’s hand as he watched over the teen’s shoulder.

“Okay, anything else?”

“Not really, it’ll sign in automatically when you  start up your laptop, and notifications will light up the icon at the bottom of the screen. And you can appear offline using this here-” Usopp clicks around and shows him the different status icons- “like a ‘do not disturb’ thing. And double-clicking a contact will call them so try not to do that unless you want to.” He goes to contacts and adds himself, showing Zoro how to do it. The teen whips out his phone, accepts the request, and shows him how one click on Usopp’s username, _sniperKing8000,_ brings up a chat page, but double-clicking immediately calls him, with Zoro’s webcam already activated. Usopp hangs up and gets out of Zoro’s chair.

“Thanks buddy,” Zoro  hums, replacing Usopp in the chair and bringing up Chrome and typing in Facebook.

“No problem. Just remember that the camera shows a lot if you leave it on,” he winks. “And be careful not to get anything on your keyboard-”

“Usopp.”

“...I’m gonna see myself out.”

“You do that.”

 

As the door shut after him, Zoro sends a message to Kuina, telling her about Skype and how to get it. A quick reply and a few minutes later, and Zoro has two contacts in his Skype log. He double clicks her name and starts a call, brushing his hair around with his hands anxiously.

“..Hello?”

The screen in front of him flickers, his own camera shrinking to the corner as Kuina’s takes over. It’s been 2 and a half months since he last went home and saw her, and Zoro’s nerves disappear as Kuina grins at him. Her wheelchair was pulled up to her desk, curtains drawn over the window and only her table lamp illuminating her pale face. Her hair, which had grown even longer since he’d left, was at her collar bones in loose waves now.

“Hey baby bro,” Kuina grins, waving at the camera.

Zoro rolls his eyes. “Nee-san, please stop calling me that.”

“Can’t help the truth,” she shrugs. “How come we never thought of this during your first year of college?”

“Beats me,” Zoro shrugs back with a smirk. “Kinda glad; you pestered me enough through texts and Facebook.”

“Oi. Well now I can pester you more often.” Her grin turns more devilish.

“Please don’t. I got this to check up on _you_ , not the other way around.”

“Sure you did. I do not need you checking up on me,” she frowns.

Zoro scowls back. “I barely have time to call you for a proper chat so yeah, I do need to check up on you.” He rolls his shoulders. “I’m a shitty brother if I can’t even call you once a week.”

“Dumbass,” Kuina’s frown smoothed out into a fond smile. “You know I do not mind. You work hard, train hard, probably party hard-” Zoro snorts- “and you are learning some pretty awesome stuff. You are pretty busy, Zozo. Do not get caught up thinking stupid things.”

Zoro’s frown deepens. “Don’t call yourself stu-”

“Oh I am not calling _myself_ stupid, stupid.” She interrupts, smile going more tender and maybe a little melancholic. “But you keep thinking that you owe me something, and you do not. Your future and your dreams are your own. Including me in those is your _choice_ , not your obligation.”

Zoro looks away, off to the side of his desk. “I know…” he mutters quietly.

“Good. How have you been, baby bro?”

“Eh, I’ve been alright. I haven’t had a lot of time to train with my swords so far, and I’ve missed a few days of morning workouts, but I don’t think I’ve done too badly.”

“Have you been meditating properly?”

“Um, sometimes.” he shrugs and scratches at his earrings. He couldn’t fool her though, by the look on her face.

“Practising with your swords and your sparring partners is one thing, but you need to strengthen your mental and spiritual bonds as well,” she chides. “If something happens that makes you lose focus, all the physical strength you can summon cannot make up for that lost momentum.”

“I know, _warui warui.”_ he waves at her through the webcam. “I’ll make time to practice more, okay?”

She studies him for a moment, then relents, leaning back. “Fine. How is everyone else? Luffy and Ace and Nami?”

“Ace comes and goes. Nami is still Nami. She’s dating a girl called Vivi right now, they seem to be doing well.” Kuina nods attentively. “Luffy… well he’s as crazy as usual.”

He doesn't mention Law. Luffy still needed time to figure things out with that guy, so no point in bringing it up until Luffy makes up his mind.

“Anyone new that I should know about?” she asks curiously, with a suggestiveness in her tone and expression that irks him a little.

“Not really. Usopp, who was our roommate last year, is rooming with us again. And we still talk to Chopper a fair bit too. Haven’t seen him in a while though.” He thinks about the penpal project, and decides she might as well know. “This year Shanks created some extra credits classes, so Nami is taking sign language, and Usopp, Luffy and I have penpals at North Blue College.”

“Ooh, exciting!” she claps rapidly, upper body bouncing a little with her energetic movements. “How has that been? Fun? Are they nice? Boy or girl?” she fires questions at him with enthusiasm.

Zoro shakes his head a little at her in amusement. “Boy. His name is Sanji. He’s alright; seems pretty nice.”

Kuina gapes at him. “You are fond of him?! He must be _very_ nice! Do you have a picture?”

“I do actually, one sec.” Zoro pushes his chair back and retrieves the photos from his bedside table. As he sits back down, he notices her smug grin. “What?”

“You keep his picture next to your bed?” she chuckles, brows raising a little in almost disbelief.

“Not on purpose,” he mutters in reply, slightly embarrassed. “I just set the letter with the photos there and never moved them. Anyway, here.” He lifts up the photo of Sanji and Kei. “Sanji is the blonde one.”

Sitting forward to get a better look, Kuina peers at the photo. In his webcam, Zoro adjusts his hold on the photo and holds it a bit closer to the laptop for her to see.

“Ooh I see him! Yeah, he's a cute one.” She laughs. “You like him right?”

He winces a little, but grinds out his reply of ‘yeah I do’ reluctantly.

“Does he like you too?” she asks, more quietly this time. Curious, but not trying to jump ahead too conclusions.

“I…. I think so. The letter writing finishes next week, so I asked him if he wanted to keep in contact. I may have wrote to him while I was drunk and told him that he was my type and I would _really_ like to get to know him, actually.” he cringes a little, making Kuina laugh. “He replied to both of those with yes, and that he feels the same. I don't know if he meant the whole ‘you are my type’ thing too because he likes girls _and_ boys and when I asked about it he said he's not bothered by appearances and all these other things so I don't really know where I fit in that but -” he catches himself, taking a breath to stop rambling - “basically, he said he's really bad at remembering to write letters so he gave me his Skype contact.”

“Ah, so that's how you suddenly decided to get Skype,” she grins at him. “Have you messaged him yet?”

“Nah, thought I should test it out with you first,” Zoro smirks back. “Don’t want to mess up or anything.”

“I'm sure you'll find a way to do that anyway, baby bro.“ she giggles, before sighing and adjusting herself in her wheelchair. “I've gotta go soon, Saga and his girlfriend are gonna take me to my next physio, and I think I just heard them come in.”

“Ah, okay. How's it been going?” Zoro stops short of asking if there's been any progress. It was a sensitive topic after all.

“Not as well as I wish, obviously,” Kuina manages a laugh, surprisingly light-hearted as always. “But I can sort of feel my thighs a little. I'm glad I've been getting help with my exercises - even if I can't feel them, I'd hate losing all the muscles I worked hard to gain.” She pats her legs firmly, proud of their shapely form despite not even being able to feel them.

“You've been doing so well, I'm sure you'll be back on your feet soon. Good luck with it, Nee-san.” Zoro replies, a twinge of guilt flickering in his gut, as always when Kuina’s condition is the topic of conversation.

“Message that blonde guy! And do your meditating! That's an order baby bro,” she grins cheekily. A knock on her door signals the arrival of Saga. “Gotta go. Love you!”

“Love you too.”

Kuina grins for a second longer, before the connection dies and he's left staring at their chat page where the first interaction on it says _Call ended_ _(_ _0:37:45)._

It takes him a few moments to think about it, adding Sanji. It was a huge step. The photo in his hand draws his attention: Sanji, grinning handsomely at the camera with those curiously curled eyebrows, clear blue eyes, scattered freckles and flushed expression. He could get to see all that in real time. He could hear Sanji’s voice; how his accent might sound compared to his, hear how he might laugh when he finds something funny. He might get to spend hours talking with the guy about everything and nothing at all. They could work it out, somehow, and Zoro could have Sanji in ways he didn't want to think too long about in case butterflies erupted in his chest.

“....Fuck it,” he mutters to himself, typing in Sanji’s username into the new contact bar.

 

* * *

 

**North Blue**

 

It's a rare day where Sanji, Law and Kei have the day off together. Classes have been cancelled, half days turned into ‘self-study’ days, and homework wasn't due for submission nowhere in the near future. The trio are having a movie day.

It starts with a large, unhealthy breakfast of pancakes, made with self raising flour so that they were extra thick. Variations included Nutella, strawberry, apple, and banana. The maple syrup is passed around as they squish up on the floor between the couch and coffee table, Disney’s _The Sorcerer's Apprentice_ starting up on the TV. It was Sanji’s choice of movie, the one with Nicholas Cage and the beautiful Monica Bellucci. And Jay Baruchel of course. He still can't believe this fidgety flustered actor was also the voice of Hiccup in How to Train your Dragon.

They follow up with said movie, and it's sequel, until it's lunchtime and Kei decides to order pizza. Sanji could make it himself, but he's far too lazy today and Kei was paying, so. Once they have their requests and place the call, they get up to go collect the order from the place down the street, and at that point Sanji notices that Law’s been on his phone.

“Who you texting?” he asks curiously, collecting up the plates and cutlery to put in the kitchen.

“Kidd,” came the short reply. Sanji frowns as he stands up and takes the plates to the kitchen.

“Are you still seeing him?” he asks with a raised voice so that Law can hear him. He gives the plates a quick rinse and leaves them in the sink, instead grabbing the basket of junk food from the dining table and a bottle of some sugary energy drink.

“I was never really seeing him,” Law scoffs. He gets up, gesturing with his lighter that he was heading outside to smoke, to which the blonde nods and joins him. “He only wanted the _one thing_ , if you catch my drift. So we were just.. friends with benefits?”

“Were?” Sanji picks up on the past tense. “Not anymore?”

“Yeah, we haven't seen each other in a couple weeks. I just… don't feel like doing that kinda thing anymore. He texted asking to meet up tonight just now, so I've replied no, and that I will still be friends with him normally but I won't sleep with him anymore.”

In the moment he used to light up, his phone went off again, several times.

“I'm guessing he's not happy about that,” Sanji murmurs, lighting his own cigarette.

Law hums under his breath in agreement, rubbing at his temple with his free hand while the other texts Kidd back at rapid pace. He takes a deep drag on his cigarette.

“So… why the change of mind?” the blonde risks asking. Law wasn't one to talk about relationships or the people he slept with. At one point of their first year living together, Law was sleeping with two different people at the same time, both of whom knew about the other but for some reason didn't mind. A polyamourous relationship, Law explained at the time, which Sanji knew the definition of and he respected it, and Law’s relationship while it lasted. But they were given no introductions to his lovers unless they ran into each other in the flat or while they were out together. He never went ‘Facebook official’ with anyone, and he never seemed broken hearted when he stopped seeing someone. Law was very… private.

“I don't know really. I'm not interested in casual sex anymore, I guess? It's less of a hassle, sure, but… I don't know, I guess I just want something a little more.. serious, I guess?” Law sighs, seemingly frustrated and confused with himself. The angry redhead he was currently texting wasn't helping, apparently, since he angrily switched his phone off and stuffs it into his pocket.

Sanji really wants to ask if this change of thinking had anything to do with his equally conflicted opinion about the goofy teenager Law was writing to regularly, but didn't push it. Law had already opened up far more than he expected, so when they go back inside he picks up the TV remote and tosses it at the dark haired med student.

“Here. You can pick the next movie,” he smiles at him reassuringly. Law went to reply, maybe thank him, or something, when Kei entered the flat with three pizza boxes in their hands.

“I thought I got the next pick because I went and got the food,” they frown, shutting the door behind them.

“You took too long, sorry buddy,” Sanji laughs.

Law smirks, and starts setting up a thriller film called _The Boy_.

“I hate you guys, just so you know.”

“Yeah yeah, sit your skinny ass down here already.”

 

* * *

 

Kaya joins their movie day after dinner. The trio allow her to pick the movie, which results in the four of them watching _The Road to El Dorado._

During the movie, Kaya leans over to whisper to him.

“Usopp and I have exchanged emails!”

Her gleeful and slightly embarrassed expression makes Sanji’s heart flutter slightly, and he grins back at her.

“That's so wonderful, my dear!”

“It's exciting, right? I got the first email just now, he's in a computer class right now, so..” She trails off with a giggle, looking down at her phone so that she can reply.

“Oh yeah, they'd still be in classes right now, wouldn't they…” a glance at the time shows that it was barely 6pm.

“Yeah, he says he has two classes left of the day.”

“I wonder if Zoro is the same?” he muses to her. “We didn't exchange emails. But I did give him my Skype username. Hopefully he'll add me.”

“Really? That's so bold of you Sanji! Direct chatting and live calls? With video too!” she giggles.

Sanji blinks a little, mouth slack in surprise. _Shit, yeah, I did that didn't I._

“Oh, uh..yeah, I guess.” he winces. “Maybe it was too bold. He probably won't add me.”

“You never know.” She winks at him, then turns back to the movie, a delicate hand going for the bowl of mini marshmallows on the table.

Sanji is left alone with his thoughts.

* * *

 

The next morning, Sanji’s alarm goes off at 5.30am as usual. He wakes up lazily, going for a quick smoke before making breakfast and lunches for everyone.

He left his laptop starting up when he first got up, and when he got back to his room it was fully started. He sat down, a mug of milky coffee at his lips and a plate of apple pancakes from yesterday's leftover batter. A small orange bubble popped up on Skype.

**_RoronoaZ11 has added you as a contact._ **

He recognised that surname. He opened up Skype and clicked accept, noting that the time difference between them was, in fact, 8 hours. It was still the previous day in West Blue, roughly 9.45pm where Zoro was.

Now that the chat with Zoro was open, he noticed that the contact request was sent barely an hour ago, and Zoro was still online.

Zoro must have seen that he accepted his request, because a little blue bubble appeared at the bottom left of the screen, a simple message inside it.

  
**Zoro R. (RoronoaZ11): hey, is this Sanji?**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's kind of a filler, but I wanted to have one last wordy chapter before the Skype conversations happen, since it'll be a lot of chat lines and not as much descriptive details, etc.  
> And yeah, background shenanigans :3c
> 
> 'Warui warui' is informal Japanese for "my bad" - correct me if it's wrong though!
> 
> Please let me know what you think owo
> 
> Also feel free to message me on my twitter:  
>  _<https://twitter.com/zombie_kaiisan> _


	8. First Contact

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> These dorks chat for the first time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for sticking with me so far!! :)

**[05:47] Zoro R. (RoronoaZ11): hey, is this Sanji?**

 

Sanji gulps. Now or never, he supposes.

 

**[05:48] Sanji B. (MrPrinceS03): Yeah, are you Zoro?**

**[05:48] Zoro R. (RoronoaZ11): Yeah. Hey.**

**[05:48] Zoro R. (RoronoaZ11): How are you?**

**[05:50] Sanji B. (MrPrinceS03): Not bad, not fully awake yet though. You?**

**[05:51] Zoro R. (RoronoaZ11): Shit yeah, why are you awake so early?**

**[05:51] Zoro R. (RoronoaZ11): And I’m good, not really up to much right now.**

 

Sanji slurps greedily at his coffee, needing to wake up quickly so he could write a bit more actively in the chat. Absent-mindedly, he typed one handedly into chat again.

 

**[05:54] Sanji B. (MrPrinceS03): Im alwats awake at this time on weekdays. Im eating breakfast rn. Apple pancaked**

**[05:55] Sanji B. (MrPrinceS03): always** pancakes*****

**[05:56] Zoro R. (RoronoaZ11): sweet. I’m guessing you made them yourself?**

**[05:59] Sanji B. (MrPrinceS03): of course**

**[06:00] Sanji B. (MrPrinceS03): world famous chef in the making here, yaknow**

**[06:00] Zoro R. (RoronoaZ11): right yeah, haha**

 

Sanji flushes a little in embarrassment. He sounds way too cocky talking like that. He finishes up the last of his pancakes before wiping his finger around the plate to lick up the last of the syrup and hastily cleans his hands on his pajama shirt.

 

**[06:07] Sanji B. (MrPrinceS03): do you mind if I change our usernames in chat bc they’re really long haha**

**[06:07] Zoro R. (RoronoaZ11): go ahead, i dont know how**

 

Sanji wonders briefly if Zoro got skype just to message him, and his heart hammers a little loudly in his ears as he clicks around in the chat screen.

 

**Sanji B. has set his nickname to ‘Sanji’.**

**Sanji has set the nickname for Zoro R. to ‘Zoro’.**

 

**[06:13] Sanji: there, how’s that?**

**[06:13] Zoro: nice**

**[06:13] Zoro: so**

**[06:14] Zoro: what time is your first class if you’re up so early?**

**[06:14] Sanji: at 7.30am.. First half hour is kitchen prep and then we get baking haha**

**[06:15] Sanji: its actually a pretty late start compared to working in an actual restaurant**

**[06:15] Zoro: is it??? You worked for your father right?**

**[06:15] Zoro: at his restaurant or something**

**[06:15] Zoro: what time did you start there**

 

Sanji blinks in surprise at the screen in front of him, momentarily surprised that not only did Zoro remember those minute details from a single letter, but also managed to piece together the few hints of information he’d given him and come up with his own theory.

 

**[06:17] Sanji: ummm, about 5-6am ish depending on the menu for the day**

**[06:17] Zoro: damn, thats early haha**

**[06:18] Sanji: yeah, i guess it is for most people**

**[06:18] Sanji: I don’t have that class everyday at least, but i get up at about this time anyway**

 

Sanji grins softly at the screen. Instant messages like this is definitely messing with his heartstrings. He could already feel an inkling of understanding for other teenager’s behaviours through how he typed. It was odd, but true, if he talked the way he typed like Sanji does. 

 

**[06:21] Zoro: right. So like, what other classes are there for Culinary Arts?**

**[06:27] Sanji: Well, it’s not just cooking or baking or anything, there’s a module on Nutrition, a module on dietary needs for different age groups, a module on allergies and intolerances, stuff like that. Then there’s baking and cooking practical classes where we actually bake and cook, and those classes are separated into different food groups, like seafood, vegetarian, traditional vs modern foods, sweet vs savoury, and so on. And then the literacy classes are like: history of cooking, history of five star meal qualifications in competition, composition and display of food, all sorts of weird classes I have to write essays for. And one semester a year we have to take health and safety classes and first aid tests to keep us up to date on that stuff.**

**[06:27] Sanji: oops uhhhh sorry for the long message haha**

 

Sanji flushed a little, and hurriedly took his plate and now-empty coffee cup from his desk and back to the kitchen, washing them up quickly. He should also take a shower and get dressed, since he has to leave and get to his campus class in half an hour, but his hands were shaking with excited nerves as he ran the wash rag over the plate. How long has it been since he was this excited about something? How long has it been since he last felt butterflies like this? He almost wants to spin around in a giddy daze, but he didn't want to spill water on the floor, so instead he finishes washing and hurries back to his room. 

 

**[06:29] Zoro: woah, that all sounds pretty interesting actually. Like i thought you just learned how to make food, and make your own stuff really.**

**[06:30] Zoro: and don’t worry about sending long messages, it’s fine by me haha**

**[06:34] Zoro: yo, you still there?**

 

Sanji glanced at the time, and realised he spent nearly 15 mins dazed in the kitchen. It was nearly quarter to seven and he still had to get ready, crap.

 

**[06:43] Sanji: shit hey sorrry**

**[06:43] Sanji: I was in the kitchen cleaning up the cooking stuff from earlier**

**[06:44] Sanji: and uhh i gotta go shower and get ready for classes**

**[06:44] Zoro: hey, its fine. Have a good day**

**[06:45] Sanji: thanks, have a good night Zoro :)**

**[06:45] Zoro: cheers, night**

 

Sanji flusters and smacks himself in the face.’Goodnight Zoro’??? With a smiley face? What was he thinking?!? Groaning deeply, he grabs his shower things and some clothes and heads to the bathroom. 

 

The day goes by in a haze, and Sanji periodically checking his Skype via his phone app. He supposes that Zoro went to sleep after he left, since he’d gone offline as Sanji left for classes. He figures that Zoro’s first class would be around 8 or 9am, meaning that he wouldn’t be awake till 4/5pm in Sanji’s time. 

The timezones bother Sanji a lot. He wants to talk more, and now that Zoro was just an instant message away he feels a little on edge, like he would be bothering him if he messaged him randomly while he slept.

In the early evening, Kaya keeps him company as he makes dinner, the two of them chatting quietly whilst listening to the radio. It was set to the French channel, Sanji’s favourite, and occasionally Sanji broke the silence or chat to rasp along to the chorus and dance around the blonde girl to make her laugh. He was finishing up the food when his phone vibrated with an alert, so he turned the oven off and served up quickly to check it.

 

**[17:09] Zoro: Mornin. Or afternoon. Evening?**

 

Sanji grinned around a forkful of food, only half-aware that Kaya was giggling and sending him suggestive glances from the corner of his vision. 

 

**[17:09] Sanji: Evening for me, morning for you i guess. Sleep well?**

**[17:10] Zoro: like the dead, haha. Thank god i have a free morning or else I’d be late…**

**[17:10] Sanji: omg, do you not set an alarm or anything**

**[17:11] Zoro: why set alarms when you have concerned roommates lol**

**[17:13] Sanji: so you’re the rush-last-minute type? Aha**

 

Sanji smacks his head with the end of a fork.

“I totally just flirted,” he groans, “And I didn’t mean to.” 

Kaya laughs at him sweetly. “I’m sure it wasn’t that bad. What did you say?”

“Ugh.. just, like.. Assuming he does everything last minute,” Sanji mumbles. “It isn’t flirty-flirty, but like.. You don’t go making assumptions and just telling them that,”

“I think you’re overthinking things,” Kaya smiles fondly at him, and his hands twirl his phone in circles as he waits nervously for a reply. Kei enters the kitchen a moment later, helping themselves to a portion of the meal that was still warm on the stove.

 

**[17:16] Zoro: not all the time i promise, haha. I usually meditate in the mornings before my kendo training, though I’m supposed to do it all the time to ‘calm my state of mind’, as my sister puts it**

**[17:17] Sanji: you have a smart sister :P how’s she doing by the way?? If you dont mind me asking**

**[17:17] Zoro: nah i dont mind. She’s fine, I skyped her before i added you to see how she was doing, and she’s alright.**

**[17:17] Sanji: ahh thats good :)**

 

A moment passed before Sanji ends up groaning again. Kei glares at him from across the table.

“What?”

“I just let the conversation end! Like that!” Sanji wails, thunking his phone onto the table. Kaya pats his shoulder as she takes her empty plate to the sink, and after finishing his food quickly Sanji does the same. He sits back down at the table to keep Kei company, though he quickly diverts his attention to his phone when it vibrates.

 

**[17:21] Zoro: yeah, sorry i was getting food. I dunno if you’d approve though.**

**[17:21] Sanji: what?? Explain**

**[17:21] Zoro: its just buttered toast, not very healthy lol**

 

Sanji frowns a little, making odd noises as he thinks over what to say. It surprised him that the mood of the chat became a little more serious with just that comment.

 

**[17:22] Sanji: why would you mind what i think? I eat unhealthy stuff all the time, I even made cookies in class today**

**[17:24] Zoro: I know but… eh never mind**

**[17:24] Sanji: no tell me?? Im so confused right now**

 

Zoro’s text bubble pops up again for a moment, before disappearing again. When it became apparent that he wasn’t going to reply straight away, the blond locked his phone with a sigh. Folding his arms and resting his chin on top, he continued making whining noises and making pitiful eyes at Kei, who raised a brow without commenting. He’s about to start complaining out loud when his phone goes off again, and he hears the redhead across from him snort in amusement as he rushes to unlock his phone again.

 

**[17:31] Zoro: ok its stupid but you wrote in your letter that you like people who eat a healthy diet… so like, i dont think you’d like me that much if you knew all the unhealthy shit i actually eat. Plus you’re a chef?? You can make a balanced meal on the spot like its no big deal and here i am just eating whatever i find without any thought on nutrition. Sometimes I’ll make protein shakes or something specific for training but that just proves I’m just a meathead, only caring about my muscles. I dont wanna lie and say I eat healthy or that im any of the things you wrote about… i dont know if i AM any of those things but i want to be..**

**[17:31] Zoro: shit that’s so stupid** **  
** **[17:32] Zoro: just ignore that all sorry**

 

Sanji nearly drops his phone in shock, and Kei genuinely has to snap their fingers in front of his eyes to get a reaction. When he barely responds with rapid blinking and reddening cheeks, Kei yanks the phone from his hands and reads the messages themselves as the blond makes a startled goldfish face.

“Kei!”

“Shut up, let me read.”

“Oh my god, Kei, seriously-” there’s a smacking noise as Sanji slaps a hand to his cheek, as if he couldn’t believe what he’d just read. And he couldn’t. Zoro really wanted him to be interested in him. He wanted to be Sanji’s type. He could feel the edges of his lips pull in a disbelieving grin. He couldn’t quite cover his widening smile with his hand as he kept his eyes on the space in his free hand where his phone had been. He hears a small clicking noise but when he looks up Kei is simply looking at his phone.. Tapping around…

“KEI WHAT ARE YOU DOING.”

“Nooooothiiiiing,”

“That’s not nothing, asshole!”

“It is, because I’m not doing anything anymore, it’s already been done.”

“WHAT.”

 

The blond teen snatches his phone back, and the first thing he can see is that Zoro was typing again, so he quickly scrolls up to see what Kei wrote, and he nearly screams in mortification. Kei had taken a photo of him, flushing red and grinning, staring down at his palm with his thoughts wandering. Just above the image was a message: **hey, Sanji’s friend Kei here. Just letting you know that you broke Sanji? He’s a grinning-blushing mess right now, so if you were worried about him not liking you back or anything then here’s some evidence to make you feel at ease -** **[image sent]**

 

“I’m going to kill you, and then throw myself off a cliff.”

“You won’t, because I’ve just secured your love life. You’ll thank me when you eventually meet this guy.”

“Meet him?!”

“I mean, yeah, I’m sure you both wanna meet right?” Kei quirks a brow at him.

“Isn’t that a bit forward?” Sanji frowns back, eyes flickering to the small dotted text bubble on his phone that indicated that Zoro was still typing.

“It probably won’t be any time soon you know. Plus you’ll wanna see if you guys can get along in person as well as online, if you wanna be in a relationship with him,” Kei points out helpfully, to which Sanji nods to slowly.  Zoro finally replies.

 

**[17:37] Zoro: oh shit okay um hi Kei?? Is sanji okay because he’s really red? Shit honestly im probably going red too. Umm this is good to know i guess because yeah i like him too. Sanji’s gonna see this when he gets his phone back but yeah.. That’s the truth really.. Dammit im grinning like mad i dont know what to do/say**

**[17:38] Sanji: its me again.. I’m still not sure whether or not to kill Kei for that...sorry about them.**

**[17:38] Zoro: don’t**

**[17:38] Zoro: I’m really glad they sent that photo of you**

**[17:39] Zoro: ……..its cute**

**[17:39] Sanji: asjfhalskhgbasalfaskjbgl**

**[17:39] Sanji: it isnt omg please erase it from your memory**

**[17:39] Zoro: oh hell no**

**[17:40] Zoro: I’m keeping it**

**[17:40] Sanji: DONT YOU DARE**

**[17:40] Zoro: its going on my phone right now ;)**

**[17:40] Sanji: I cant believe this. Brb jumping off a cliff.**

**[17:41] Zoro: do you want one back?**

**[17:41] Sanji: ???**

**[17:41] Zoro: a photo of me right now, to make it fair? I’m pretty sure my face is still red, which is embarrassing, but… i dont mind if it makes you feel better.**

**[17:42] Sanji: … yeah.**

**[17:42] Sanji: if you dont mind.. I want to see you too**

**[17:43] Zoro: [image sent]**

 

He can’t stop himself from making a small squealing noise as he opens the image. Kei tries to lean over and look but in revenge for stealing his phone, he darts up and runs away before they can see it, hiding in his room and ducking under the covers of his bed. In the photo, Zoro seemed to be sitting back against the wall of his bed, pillows propped up behind him, one hand on his neck like he wanted to cover his face, which was angled a little to the side like he wanted to look away. His brows were pulled a little upwards in the in the middle, and his grin was lopsided as though he wasn’t sure how smiling worked - but he looked amazing to Sanji. Zoro was right - his ears were a little red, though his natural skin tone hid most of it. He looked awkward as hell and it pleased Sanji to no end that he could see this side of Zoro when no-one else could. With shaking fingers, he saves the photo to his phone and types out a reply.

 

**[17:48] Sanji: I’ve saved it.**

**[17:48] Sanji: can i be honest and just say you look really good like that**

**[17:48] Sanji: like.. Really adorable.**

**[17:49] Zoro: adorable?? Really???**

**[17:49] Sanji: I thought you’d prefer that over cute**

**[17:49] Zoro: im not either of those things, ha. That’s how i think of you.**

**[17:50] Sanji: fhaslfhasfhgjals youre honestly killing me here**

**[17:50] Zoro: the feeling’s mutual. I have to suffer through all of my classes today whilst trying not to look at that photo, you know.**

**[17:51] Sanji: … i guess haha. But now I’ve got an evening of homework and revision to do, how am i supposed to concentrate?**

**[17:51] Zoro: looks like we’re even then :P though i dont mind this kind of suffering if i can see that photo in between classes.**

**[17:52] Sanji: ……….. You’re literally KILLING me here. You need to stop my face cant go any redder**

**[17:52] Zoro: I can imagine hahaha**

**[17:53] Sanji: why must you make me suffer like this**

**[17:53] Zoro: sorry?? I’ll stop if you want… I’ve gotta go soon anyway i guess**

**[17:54] Sanji: no**

**[17:54] Sanji: its fine i just**

**[17:54] Sanji: I’m not used to it my heart needs a moment**

**[17:54] Zoro: ahh**

**[17:54] Zoro: its the same for me**

**[17:54] Zoro: this is new and feels weird but i dont dislike it**

**[17:55] Sanji: … im the same**

**[17:55] Zoro: cool.**

**[17:56] Zoro: I really do have to get ready to get to the gym though - I’ll speak to you later? Or tomorrow morning for you?**

**[17:56] Sanji: yeah, sure. Bye! :)**

**[17:57] Zoro: bye sanji :)**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please comment? I love reading what you guys think!!


	9. Better Late Than Never

The whole night, Sanji struggles to keep the grin off his face, and blitzes through his revision and coursework on a high. He is in such a good mood, he even makes cupcakes late into the evening, and a whole shelf in the fridge was now dedicated to frosted vanilla cupcakes for the flat to eat whenever they wanted. His sleep is affected too, in the sense that he can’t stop bringing up Zoro’s photo on his phone. It’s addicting, seeing it on his phone and knowing this photo is only for him. That he is the only one to see this photo, ever. That this photo was taken for his eyes only. 

He spends far too much time kicking his feet in giddy happiness under his duvet before he eventually fell asleep. 

At 5am, his alarm for his early morning class goes off and he wakes up feeling great. Sanji showers quickly and keeps the towel in his hair as he dresses in boxers and sweats, ambling to the kitchen to brew a cup of hazelnut coffee. He takes a couple cupcakes from the fridge and sets them on a small plate, washing and slicing up an apple and adding a handful of grapes on the side to be ‘healthy’. Once he has his drink he takes the cup and plate to his room and places them on the counter, setting up his laptop. In the meantime, he snaps a photo and sends it straight to Skype with a small grin.

 

**[05:25] Sanji:** **_[image sent]-  goooood mornin_ **

**[05:25] Zoro: well hello there**

**[05:25] Zoro: is that your breakfast??**

**[05:25] Sanji: maybe.**

**[05:25] Zoro: I see why you told me not to worry, I guess? And did you make those cupcakes yourself?**

**[05:26] Sanji: yeah - i have fruit to balance it out tho :P** **  
** **[05:26] Sanji: and hmmmm take a guess**

**[05:26] Zoro: alright sassy. And does an apple and some grapes equate to three cupcakes??**

**[05:26] Sanji: yes.**

**[05:26] Sanji: also: sassy???**

**[05:26] Zoro: you can’t tell me you weren’t being sarcastic**

**[05:27] Sanji: I was.. I was just surprised**

**[05:27] Zoro: that I called you sassy?**

**[05:27] Sanji: it felt like a petname okay!!**

**[05:27] Zoro: oohhhh**

**[05:27] Sanji: I’m gonna go throw myself out the window**

**[05:27] Zoro: are you gonna throw yourself out/off of something every time something sappy or embarrassing happens?**

**[05:27] Sanji: depends**

**[05:27] Sanji: would you pay for my medical bills?**

**[05:28] Zoro: may i remind you that as college students we are both broke af**

**[05:28] Sanji: true.**

**[05:28] Zoro: you might as well stop bc its gonna keep happening, just saying**

**[05:28] Sanji: are you saying that you might intentionally say sappy things to make me embarrassed?**

**[05:28] Zoro: ahahaha**

**[05:28] Zoro: im not that good, sorry**

 

Sanji pouts at the screen, now viewing and typing to the chat via his laptop instead of his phone. As he pops a grape into his mouth, his other hand hovers over the keyboard hesitantly, wondering if what he wanted to write is too much. He writes it in a roundabout way, adding a joke after as he chewed anxiously.

 

**[05:29] Sanji: I wouldn’t mind if you did… promise I won’t jump off any cliffs or anything haha..**

**[05:29] Zoro: uh**

**[05:30] Zoro: well**

 

Sanji smacks himself in the face as the writing bubble comes and goes, convinced he’d just messed everything up. What was he even suggesting? What did he even want Zoro to think of that? It was a weird attempt at flirting, at best.

He peels back the paper liner on one of the cupcakes and stuffs the whole thing into his mouth, frosting and all. He changes the screen from the chat to twitter, scrolling through his feed as he tries to keep his vocal whines to a minimum. Kei has a strange sense of hearing when it came to Sanji freaking out about things. A couple minutes later and the little orange bubble pops up, and he clicks on skype with his heart pounding loudly in his ears.

 

**[05:38] Zoro: okay, prepare yourself bc this is so awkward. So. All of today - yesterday for you? - I was thinking of your picture, the one Kei sent of you when you were apparently thinking of me. And that made me… really happy. I had to stop myself from taking my phone out of my pocket while I trained because if I did I would bring up your photo and lose track of time.  I had to wrestle my phone away from Nami and Luffy at lunch because they caught me messing with it. And I got told off by my CBT Teacher for having my phone in my hand, and yep, I was looking at you. I wanted to message you after that and tell you how crazy you were making me. It was like I was on fire, i wanted to run for miles - i did that anyway after classes were done - and I had all these bubbles in my stomach - Nami said they were butterflies - and the best thing was that I meditated for nearly two hours after that, and I felt so focused, because I only had one thing on my mind to clear my head of, you. Is it weird that I feel calm but also have those bubbles at the same time? Everything about this - us - feels like opposites clashing together in a good way and it worries me as much as it makes me feel giddy.**

 

In hindsight, he maybe shouldn’t have taken a drink of his coffee as he read, and as his jaw slackened throughout the paragraph a dribble of dark liquid drips from his lips and onto his lap with a warm splash.

“Shit!”

He rereads the paragraph over and over in his head as he pats the stain on his leg, his face steaming more than his coffee as he felt a wobbly grin stretch across his face and overwhelmed tears prick his eyes. 

“Shit, shit!” He presses the palms of his hands to his eyes as he leans back in his chair, unsure what to write back. 

“Sanji?” There’s a small knock as Kaya lets herself in, sleepily rubbing at her own eyes. “I heard you call out, are you okay?”

“Oh, I’m sorry my sweet, I’m fine.” Sanji startles a little; he forgot that Kaya was next door to him. He pats his leg. “I just spilled some coffee on my lap, surprised myself. I’m sorry, I was louder than I thought I guess.” 

“Well, if that’s all. I’m glad it wasn’t anything more serious.” The petite woman smiles, eyes wandering to his laptop. She gives him a knowing grin. “Don’t be late to class now.”

Sanji pouts. “I won’t, so go back to sleep chérie.”

Kaya giggles at him and shuts his door again with a small wave. As he turns back to his laptop, he realises that Zoro has messaged again when he failed to reply.

 

**[05:53] Zoro: okay I know you promised but did you actually throw yourself out the window this time??**

**[05:58] Sanji: fjsahkgahksjkdkl**

**[05:58] Sanji: I didn’t, i held myself back**

**[05:58] Sanji: i did spill my coffee, however**

**[05:59] Zoro: you okay???**

**[05:59] Sanji: coffee-wise, yeah, it was barely warm**

**[05:59] Sanji: sappy message wise…. I’ll get back to you on that. I think my brain’s still processing it**

**[05:59] Zoro: ….in a good way, i hope?**

**[06:00] Sanji: yeah… I’m literally speechless and bright red mess right now (again)**

**[06:00] Zoro: right. Okay. Sorry about the coffee though.**

**[06:00] Zoro: I’d say I’d get you a new one.. But..**

**[06:00] Sanji: … I’ll make a note of it, you can pay me back later?**

**[06:00] Zoro: are you suggesting a coffee date in the future**

**[06:01] Zoro: because you’re implying a lot of things there…**

 

He is. He takes a large gulp of his remaining coffee and nibbles an apple slice as he mulls over his options again, before replying.

 

**[06:02] Sanji: I am… I mean, I’d like to meet for real in the future, but I know it wouldn’t be easy. And with everything you wrote ^ earlier… god, that made me so happy. I woke up my roommate ‘cause i yelled out loud (i also spilled my coffee in that second) - you made my heartbeat go crazy so easily, i dont know why you think you can’t write sappy shit so naturally? If I didn’t already like you this much I think that would’ve sold me… So like, for now, things like owing me a coffee, we can keep that as just a joke? But like, if we really got the chance to meet…**

**[06:02] Sanji: would you wanna go get coffee together?**

 

Zoro doesn’t keep him waiting for as long as Sanji did, and replies simply:

 

**[06:04] Zoro: I’d like that.**

**[06:04] Sanji: same.**

**[06:04] Zoro: just letting you know though, i dont drink coffee, so…**

**[06:05] Sanji: >:O !!!**

 

Sanji laughs at himself, a giddy rush of everything that’d happened in the last few minutes catching up with him, and he makes himself eat the rest of the apple slices and grapes before he eats the next cupcake. 

 

**[06:05] Zoro: ahaha, don’t worry - I’ll still buy you one ;)**

**[06:05] Sanji: better do!! I can’t believe this blasphemy! What overworked college student doesn’t drink coffee?? >:O**

**[06:05] Zoro: the kind that has enough energy drinks in their systems to pump sugar instead of blood**

**[06:06] Sanji: … that’s fair**

 

Sanji snorts in amusement, feeling a little bubble of happiness well up inside him. Daringly, he lifts the third and final cupcake up to his face, pulling the damp towel from his head and switching the camera on his phone to selfie mode, taking a quick snap of him taking a bite, mouth all teeth as he grins into his mouthful of sweet vanilla frosting. His hair is messy and slightly wavy from drying naturally, and his skin is a little blotchy, but his visible eye is bright and twinkling mischievously at the camera. He hits send.

 

**[06:07] Sanji:** **_[image sent] - my supply of sugar is freshly baked and made with love ;)_ **

 

He sees the text bubble appear and disappear a couple of times, before Zoro decides to reply with words. Sanji grins at his screen, a confident and pleased warmth overflowing on top of his happy bubble. 

 

**[06:08] Zoro: ……………..are you shirtless? Wow. Not gonna lie, you look really attractive like that**

**[06:08] Sanji: as honest as ever i see**

**[06:08] Zoro: of course, why would i lie?**

**[06:08] Sanji: no idea, but I’m not against honest compliments :3c**

**[06:09] Zoro: the hell is that emoji?**

**[06:09] Zoro: nevermind i see it**

**[06:09] Zoro: anyway, thanks for the new phone background**

**[06:10] Sanji: >:O you didn’t!!!**

**[06:10] Zoro:** **_[screenshot sent] - :3c_ **

**[06:10] Sanji: I can’t believe youre using my own emojis against me like this.**

**[06:10] Zoro: :3c**

**[06:10] Sanji: ashflahghlsjfdahg**

**[06:10] Sanji: what are you gonna say if someone sees it???**

**[06:10] Zoro: oh, well**

**[06:10] Zoro: everyone in my flat kinda already know about… us?**

**[06:10] Zoro: so they’d probably just be happy for me?**

**[06:11] Sanji: oh. Thats good I guess. They approve**

**[06:11] Sanji: mine do too, by the way.**

**[06:11] Zoro: good :)**

 

Sanji huffs at that last message, taking his plate and cup back to the kitchen in one hand and his phone in the other. He cleans them and starts making the packed lunches for the day, typing one-handedly at his phone as he picks out different food items to use.

 

**[06:13] Sanji: gonna brb for a bit, making some lunches :)**

**[06:13] Zoro: sure, I’m just reading over my notes from class today anyway, will probably go to sleep in the next hour or so**

 

Sanji pouts a little, knowing that for the next hour or so he’ll be busy with making food and getting ready for class, meaning not much time left to talk to Zoro.  _ What the hell, I’ve been ballsy a few times already.. _

 

**[06:14] Sanji: I don’t suppose I can get a photo back of you then? I’ll be leaving soon after I’m done with these pack lunches..**

**[06:15] Zoro: do i haaaaaave to :( ?**

**[06:15] Sanji: technically, no. but… :3c**

 

Sanji pouts at the lack of immediate response, and carries on preparing food. Part of his mind stays focused on his phone, and the chat that’s just under the locked screen, but his culinary senses take other as he switches into chef mode. He soon forgets all else as he gets creative with the lunchboxes, organising foods by colour and making faces and all sorts of silly things. He faintly hears a chime go off, but ignores it in favour of completing the boxes. As he just finishes labelling them, his phone rings with a call.

“Hey!.... What, right now? The professor isn’t there yet? Okay, slow down. First of all,  _ how..?” _

He packs the boxes in a hurry, phone tucked into his shoulder as he tries to calm down his food prep partner. As he finishes, he takes his phone with him, setting it to loudspeaker as he gets dressed and packs his bag for the day. Some time between him pulling a sweater on over his shirt and tying his shoe, his classmate hangs up. He ties his laces together on his other shoe as his phone chimes again. Assuming it’s his classmate, he throws it into his messenger bag and slings it over his shoulder, grabbing his keys on his way from his room and tucks a cigarette behind his ear as he rushes out the door.

 

* * *

 

Sanji doesn’t get home until evening, heaving through the entryway of the flat with bags of Tupperware in both hands.

“Someone take these off me if they want to eat!” he grunts, peeling his shoes off at the heel with his toes. Kei appears and grabs the bags eagerly, practically salivating on the spot,  rushing to the kitchen to unpack the boxes of food. 

“I love when you have practical classes!” they call over their shoulder gleefully. Sanji groans tiredly and shuts the door with his now free hands. 

“I have been on my feet all day,” he complains, shuffling towards the kitchen and hanging his bag over his chair as he slumps down onto a seat. Law and Kaya eagerly join them in the small, brightly-lit room and the three students begin to look through the labelled packaging. “Just pick what you want and stick the container in the microwave for two minutes. I’ll have whatever is left.” 

Kaya gets her pick first, sneakily snagging a container as Law and Kei squabble over one of the stir fry dishes, and sets hers in the microwave alongside one she grabs for Sanji. The blond smiles gratefully at her, before dropping his head in his arms as he zones out. He’s so tired; having to leave early to help his classmate really messed with his focus for the day and having three practical cooking classes, as well as helping with the college’s soup kitchen for the homeless really took a lot out of him. On the other hand, he’s glad that they made a lot of food today, because it meant that not only did he have a lot to bring back home with him, but a lot of people at the shelter got to eat lots of different and delicious meals instead of just the simple foods they usually distribute. It feels good to make a difference for them.

He only lifts his head when Kaya pushes his container and a fork towards him, the warmth reaching his skin and awakening his appetite. The chatter at the table is contagious as he gets pulled into arguments and ragging on each other, and the mood is enough to lift his tired spirit and drag himself and his bag back into his room. He slaps his bag down next to his bed, strips off his sweater and falls down facefirst. He’s nearly asleep when he faintly hears his phone chime again. 

He really doesn’t want to move, but the sudden image of Zoro and their conversation this morning pops into his head and he twists quickly, reaching over the side of his bed and desperately digging in his bag for his phone - and sure enough, several messages from Zoro. And an image!

 

**[06:15] Sanji: technically, no. but… :3c**

**_\---New Messages!--_ **

**[06:15] Zoro: hmmmmmmmmmmm**

**[06:15] Zoro: I guess its only fair**

**[06:15] Zoro:** **_[image sent] - don’t laugh too hard pls_ **

 

Sanji beams happily at the image that loads onto his screen. It’s brightly lit in Zoro’s room, no doubt because it was already late evening at that time and he was reading through his course notes. In the frame, Zoro is reclining back in his desk chair, and a good portion of his room is visible behind him: a double bed with messy covers, some posters that are too blurry to distinguish, a pile of laundry overflowing from a hamper, and some weights in the middle of the floor. In the centre of the photo is a rather perturbed looking Zoro… wearing glasses? 

“Fucking nerd…” he snorts jokingly. Kei would have a field day with this, like Zoro was one of those ‘megane tsundere’ boys in their manga or something. He can’t deny the fact that the steel-wired, rectangular frames suit Zoro. He looked tired, his hair clearly fussed with, and a small frown pulled his lips down at an angle, but his features were soft, like he was a little amused by the situation. From the angle he could see that the teen was wearing a large dark hoodie with a straw hat insignia in the centre. 

“Ahhh he’s actually adorable…” he mumbles to himself, and feels guilty for unintentionally ignoring the messages. He continues to read.

 

**[06:40] Zoro: you there?**

**[07:24] Zoro: gonna guess you forgot your phone or something, have a good one**

**\-------**

**[18:11] Zoro: hey, you back from classes yet?**

**[18:13] Sanji: yeah, shit, hi**

**[18:13] Sanji: sorry about earlier, there was an emergency. Are you in class?**

**[18:14] Zoro: Nah, free period, dont worry about it, you okay?**

**[18:14] Sanji: yeah it was just a classmate being dramatic**

**[18:14] Sanji: also, thank you for the adorable selfie earlier :3c**

**[18:14] Sanji: nerd glasses suit you**

**[18:14] Zoro: uuuuuuuugggghhhhh**

**[18:14] Zoro: i dont like them, i only need them for reading when my eyes hurt**

**[18:15] Sanji: you couldve taken a selfie without them y’know.. If you didnt want me to see them ;)**

**[18:15] Zoro: …..**

**[18:15] Sanji: ehehehe**

**[18:16] Zoro: …… anyway**

**[18:16] Sanji: awh, you’re the embarrassed one now :3c**

**[18:16] Zoro: ……..shuddup**

**[18:16] Zoro: was your classmate okay in the end?**

**[18:16] Sanji: :3c :3c :3c**

**[18:16] Sanji: yeah he was fine**

**[18:17] Sanji: the dumbass was in charge of setting up the surprise birthday decorations for our teacher but forgot where he put the spare keys for the prep room so we had to run around and find them so we could decorate before she got there**

**[18:17] Sanji: he called everyone aha, it was like a giant game of hide and seek at 6.30 in the morning**

**[18:17] Zoro: is he still alive?? I know that if someone from any of my classes called that early in the morning, there’d be bodybags**

**[18:18] Sanji: we’re all chefs in the making, so in one way or another, most of us were already awake anyway, so no harm for us or him**

**[18:18] Sanji: and our teacher loved the surprise, which was a bonus :)**

**[18:18] Zoro: well I’m glad it all went well in the end haha**

 

Sanji reads over the chat again with a smile, remembering the antics of he and his friends this morning; he was grouchy and kicked his classmate’s ass for losing the keys, but they had a lot of fun sneaking around the campus, giggling and whispering and running through hallways as quietly as possible. The girls had done a wonderful job of actually decorating the room once they got in, and Mrs Cramsey almost cried when she walked in and they’d started to sing. Thinking of his teacher’s birthday made him realise something with a jolt.

 

**[18:21] Sanji: hey so I just realised**

**[18:21] Sanji: but i dont know when your birthday is??**

**[18:21] Sanji: this is important info i need to know**

**[18:21] Zoro: oh**

**[18:22] Zoro: I dont really celebrate it so…**

**[18:22] Zoro: its not important**

**[18:22] Sanji: :O :O :O !!!!**

**[18:23] Sanji: but how will i know when to send you a card?? Or write happy birthday to you?**

**[18:23] Zoro: im really not that fussed about stuff like that, honestly**

**[18:23] Sanji: :( I still want to send you something…**

**[18:24] Zoro: sorry**

**[18:24] Zoro: you can’t anyway, its already passed**

**[18:24] Sanji: WHAT**

**[18:24] Sanji: WHEN**

**[18:25] Sanji: TELL ME NOW**

**[18:25] Zoro: 11th November**

**[18:25] Sanji: oh mY GOD**

**[18:25] Sanji: ITS THE 18TH TODAY**

**[18:25] Sanji: ARE YOU SAYING**

**[18:25] Sanji: THAT I MISSED YOUR BIRTHDAY**

**[18:26] Sanji: BY A WEEK????**

**[18:26] Zoro: :3c**

**[18:26] Sanji: LGHALSHAHGSOUDHFJKLSFNBDSHFJJASLFK STOP USING THAT INAPPROPRIATELY IS2G**

**[18:26] Sanji: I HATE YOU**

**[18:27] Sanji: WHY DIDNT YOU TELL ME**

**[18:27] Zoro: okay first of all, chill lmao**

**[18:27] Zoro: second we didnt have skype at that point, only letters**

**[18:27] Zoro: and third we never asked about birthdays and stuff until now**

**[18:28] Sanji: … i can’t believe this**

**[18:28] Zoro: dont worry about it**

**[18:28] Sanji: ofc im gonna worry about it**

**[18:28] Sanji: i wanted to send you something :(**

**[18:28] Zoro: oh**

**[18:28] Zoro: well how about christmas instead or something**

**[18:28] Zoro: we can send each other christmas cards??**

**[18:29] Sanji: i guessssssssss**

**[18:29] Sanji: i wanted to send something more personal though ///**

**[18:29] Sanji: like, an actual, thought out and planned present**

**[18:29] Zoro: ……. We can do that for christmas?**

**[18:29] Sanji: I guuesssss**

**[18:30] Zoro: you can get me a birthday present next year or something calm down**

**[18:30] Sanji: …….. Or**

**[18:30] Sanji: i send you a birthday present… and christmas present… in one parcel :3c**

**[18:30] Zoro: please don’t**

**[18:30] Zoro: one present is more than enough**

**[18:31] Sanji: technically, you wouldn’t be able to stop me**

**[18:31] Zoro: uuuugggghhhh**

**[18:31] Sanji: please? I just want to get you a little something :(**

**[18:31] Zoro: fiiine**

**[18:31] Zoro: tell me your birthday too so i can give you something too**

**[18:32] Sanji: :D**

**[18:32] Sanji: March 2nd!**

**[18:32] Zoro: so that means I’m older than you, huh? Fancy that**

**[18:32] Sanji: yeah, i guess so.**

**[18:32] Sanji: you’re no longer a teen :O**

**[18:32] Zoro: doesnt feel any different honestly**

**[18:33] Sanji: good to know**

**[18:33] Sanji: anyway**

**[18:33] Sanji: tell me some things you like/dont like so i can get ideas for your presents :D**

**[18:33] Zoro: ugh**

**[18:33] Zoro: uuuuuuggghhhh**

**[18:33] Sanji: pleaassee**

**[18:38] Zoro: well.. I don’t really like sweet things, like super sugary food. Some pastries and traditional Japanese foods are alright, theyre not too sweet. I dont like flowers or cutesy gifts so please dont send anything like that. Besides that the only things i like are bands and movies**

**[18:39] Sanji: thats a start! :3 i remember some of the bands you wrote about, Skillet and Fall Out Boy and Shinedown? I like them too! What about movies, have any favourites?**

**[18:41] Zoro: yeah im glad we share similar band taste :) um, movie wise i just saw the Deadpool movie, which was pretty good. I like his comics too. And ones i’ve watched a lot are probably the Xmen movies and Guardians of the Galaxy?**

**[18:41] Sanji: I see the theme going on here**

**[18:41] Sanji: hmmmmmm i have some ideas**

**[18:42] Zoro: ONE thing remember**

**[18:42] Sanji: :3c**

 

Sanji grins down at his phone excitedly. He knows exactly what he wants to do, but he also knows that Zoro wouldn’t like him sending a big boxes of gifts. But surely he wouldn’t turn down baked goods? Recipes flitted through his mind’s eye as he thinks of all the possibilities to make and send to him. 

 

**[18:44] Zoro: alright then, what about you?**

**[18:44] Zoro: likes and dislikes?**

**[18:48] Sanji: hmmm well i like animals!! Baby ones especially, but my favourites are like ducklings, kittens, chicks, fox cubs!! I also like sweets, if you havent guessed already by my breakfast earlier. Umm, music wise i also like acoustic stuff, like Ed Sheeran or Boyce Avenue, or upbeat stuff like Caravan Palace (please listen to them they’re awesome). I like patterned things? My favourite colour is blue, and I like things that are blue with patterns on them, like hair ties or stationary.**

 

Sanji pauses there, biting his lip. Part of him, the deeply-ingrained hopeless romantic in him, wants to mention flowers. He knows now that Zoro dislikes them though, so he doesn’t mention it, because he doesn’t want him to feel uncomfortable buying something like that. Plus, it’s not like they’re dating, so there’s no reason for Zoro to send him anything romantic like that. He remains silent on the subject.

 

**[18:48] Zoro: right, okay**

**[18:49] Sanji: yeah, and all i can say on what not to get would be cooking supplies, bc i have plenty lmao. Oh and i really hate bugs/spiders**

**[18:49] Zoro: noted.**

**[18:49] Zoro: sorry, but i have to go now for a bit, having lunch with Luffy and the others.**

**[18:49] Sanji: ahh, no worries, I’m probably just gonna have an early night myself since I’ve been running around all day**

**[18:50] Zoro: fair enough, if i dont catch you later before you head to sleep, have a good night :)**

**[18:50] Sanji: thanks, have a good day at college :)**

 

With that, Sanji yawns sleepily and drifts off into a light snooze with a smile on his face.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed it, and forgive me for any mistakes, thank you to my friend grace from the talkshitgetwrit gang for beta-ing <3
> 
> yall can find me at
> 
> [@kaiisan_](https://twitter.com/kaiisan_)
> 
> on Twitter! I retweet a lot of Voltron on there atm but I'm always up for chatting about zosan and stuff!!


	10. Gift-Giving

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long!!! A lot's been happening sorry!!
> 
> (This'll also be the last update again for a while sorry)

Zoro slumps down at the cafeteria table with a small sigh, setting his lunch tray on the table. He’d been stopped by a professor of his on the way to meeting his friends, and the older gentleman had warned him of his upcoming essay with his class. He droned on for a while before allowing Zoro to carry on, and now he finally sat down next to Usopp, Luffy, and Chopper. 

“Hi Zoro!” Luffy cheers, spitting crumbs of food as he chews. The other two nod a greeting.

“Hey,” Zoro smacks Luffy’s already wandering hand from his plate and quickly gathers up with sandwich, grilled chicken and salad, into his hands and takes large bites.

“Where were you free period dude?” Usopp wags a fork at him, a piece of carrot pierced on the end. “You usually come hang with us in the Quad.”

“Mmm,” he hums, finishing his bite. “Had to go to the library. Professor Beckmann moved the submission date for his report forward.” He takes another large bite and leans back, taking his tray with him, away from Luffy’s reaching hands.

It was true, his teacher did move the date forward, and his original intention in going to the library had been to plough through the essay and get most of it done, but, well, his mind had been on Sanji, who’d disappeared off Skype without even a goodbye. He was so distracted with worry that he barely slept, and in the morning impulsively sent another message, and he was glad he did since Sanji appeared online shortly after. 

The matter of his birthday does unsettle him a little, but Sanji seems really upset with the fact that he missed it. Well, not everyone has to like their birthday, right? He was allowed to not do anything except maybe have a beer with his roommates and eat take away while watching bad comedies. They’d paid for his food and liquor instead of buying him gifts, which was great, and he’d had more than enough with just that. Sanji, however, seems to be the type to lavish gifts on his friends, or whatever it is that they were now with all the honest compliments and selfies. It isn’t an entirely uncomfortable thought, knowing he might get gifts from the blond..

“How do I tell Sanji that I don’t like my birthday?” He sighs to his friends, breaking the flow of their conversation unapologetically. The following silence is met with sympathetic glances and shrugging shoulders.

“Well you don’t have to tell him the  _ exact _ reason,” Usopp says fairly. “Just say you have bad memories from your childhood, or something.”

“It’s within your right to withhold that kind of information until you feel comfortable enough to tell him.” Chopper states matter-of-factly.

They all nod at that, Zoro included. 

“I mean, it’s not a big deal but…” Another sigh. “It’s just a shitty thing to know.”

“You’re super cool no matter who your birth parents are,” Luffy thumps his fist down on the table. “They’re missing out on someone really awesome.”

“Thanks Captain.” 

“What’s up losers?” Nami calls out as she arrives in a flourish. Her hair is just a little messy and she’s in the middle of reapplying lipgloss. “What’s with the faces?”

“Sanji wants to buy me a belated birthday gift.” Zoro frowns, sipping from his sports bottle to stop another sigh.

“Then let him.” She shrugs. She pauses from her lipgloss smacking and fishes her lunch out of her backpack, then adds, “I know you have a weird thing about it, which is reasonable, but unless you tell him that he’s gonna treat your birthday like everyone else's; and besides, isn’t it a good thing that he wants to treat you to gifts? It means he likes you enough to spend his money on you.”

“Plus it’s the first present exchange! You can give him Christmas presents,” Chopper added excitedly. 

"He wants to send birthday AND Christmas presents," Zoro grumbles, and Nami coos appreciatively.

"How romantic~" She sighs, and Zoro kicks her lightly under the table.

"I don't do romantic..." Zoro sighs again, unable to help himself. "I don't know if I can get him something he'll like."

"Did he tell you things he likes?" Usopp raises a brow.

"Yeah, and I told him what I liked and didn't like, since he asked."

"Than he'll get you something along those lines." Usopp shrugs, losing interest in his friend's internal conflict.

Realising that maybe he's overthinking, Zoro drops the topic and continues his day as normal; namely, struggling with his written assignments and mastering his physical ones. It took him longer to meditate today thanks to his thoughts though, and he resigns himself to messaging Sanji about it again later when he gets home.

 

He has to wait until after nine for Sanji's contact to come online in his friend's list.

 

**[21:23] Zoro:** Morning?

**[21:23] Sanji:** gsfaskfhalsfa

**[21:23] Zoro:** Just woke up huh

 

Zoro can't help his grin as he imagines a sleepy Sanji glaring at his screen.

 

**[21:25] Sanji:** yes good morning im awake   
**[21:25] Sanji:** ish

**[21:25] Zoro:** how have you been?

**[21:25] Sanji:** i'd rather sleep for 10 thousand years instead of doing coursework, but yanno

**[21:25] Sanji:** what can ya do

**[21:26] Sanji:** how about you?

**[21:26] Zoro:** suffering, as per

**[21:26] Zoro:** better now that you're online tho

**[21:26] Sanji:** fuck off with that cute shit

 

Sanji's response makes him laugh out loud. So he can't handle things like that? He'd only said a couple nice things like that so far, and every time Sanji's reaction makes him laugh as he type-smashed his reactions and swore in embarrassment. The fact that the blond could convey his flustered reactions so easily in text makes him smile even more.

 

**[21:28] Zoro:** let me know when you’re more awake i wanna talk to you properly

**[21:28] Sanji:** mmkay let me go get food and stuff

**[21:39] Sanji:** aaaaaaaand im back

**[21:39] Sanji:** Wassup

**[21:40] Zoro:** about the whole present thing

**[21:40] Sanji:** you’re not getting out of getting one!! I have your address :3

**[21:41] Zoro:** its about that actually

**[21:41] Zoro:** I go home for the winter holidays

**[21:41] Zoro:** what about you?

**[21:41] Sanji:** oh yeaah

**[21:42] Sanji:** same, actually

**[21:42] Zoro:** so how we going to send things

**[21:42] Zoro:** just send them early or?

**[21:43] Sanji:** well, i dont mind giving you my home address tbh

**[21:43] Zoro:** oh

**[21:43] Zoro:** yeah okay then

**[21:43] Zoro:** I’ll give you mine too

**[21:44] Sanji:** ok so, our address is The Baratie, Main Street, Paris, France District, North Blue

**[21:44] Sanji:** Kei lives with me too, btw. But dont worry about getting them something, they like oddly specific things

**[21:45] Zoro:** oh? Whys that

**[21:45] Sanji:** their parents dont like them being who they are so they kicked them out a couple years ago. Kei’s stayed with us since.

**[21:45] Sanji:** and the things they like are just very specific bc they only find certain things cool or cute. 

**[21:46] Zoro:** ahh okay. I’ll still get them a card or something though

**[21:46] Sanji:** that would be nice!!! Ty

**[21:46] Zoro:** Nami and Luffy and I actually all live in the same town too

**[21:47] Zoro:** we all went to school together

**[21:47] Sanji:** Nice!! Its great that you all can stick together :D

 

Zoro pauses before his reply, frowning. Thinking about his birthday situation, he wonders if he should tell Sanji at all, or try and dissuade him again from sending anything. It was conflicting to think about, since he truly wasn’t keen on receiving gifts and barely manages to give his friends any, and having someone he doesn’t really know too well want to send him things is definitely new.

 

**[21:53] Sanji:** fell asleep??

**[21:53] Zoro:** nah sorry. 

**[21:54] Zoro:** listen you really dont have to send me anything for my birthday

**[21:54] Zoro:** even for christmas just a card is fine

**[21:55] Sanji:** ok now you listen

**[21:55] Sanji:** im only gonna say this shit one more time

**[21:56] Sanji:** i like you and i wanna do this cute shit where I send you stuff for your birthday and christmas and it makes you happy

**[21:56] Sanji:** and this will be the very first one so its gonna be extra special and shit okay so fucking deal with it

 

Zoro groans, smacking his head down on the desk next to his laptop. 

 

**[22:01] Zoro:** you’re literally killing me

**[22:01] Sanji:** trust me i am also embarrassed

**[22:02] Sanji:** but its true so

**[22:02] Zoro:** UGH

**[22:02] Zoro:** fine

**[22:03] Zoro:** as long as it isnt too sappy ok

**[22:03] Sanji:** yeah ok

**[22:03] Sanji:** i dont think either of us could handle it if it was

**[22:04] Sanji:** so tell me your address mmmmkay

**[22:07] Zoro:** okay its Isshin Dojo, Shimotsuki Village, Japan District, West Blue

**[22:07] Sanji:** awesome

**[22:08] Zoro:** can we agree on a set amount

**[22:08] Zoro:** to spend

**[22:08] Sanji:** sure

**[22:08] Sanji:** including shipping?

**[22:09] Zoro:** yeah? I guess

**[22:09] Sanji:** okay then like 30?

**[22:09] Zoro:** ooookaay

**[22:09] Sanji:** I’ll get Luffy and Nami a card too I guess??

**[22:10] Zoro:** if you want, I’ll get Kei one

**[22:10] Sanji:** alrighty!

**[22:10] Sanji:** all sorted :D

**[22:10] Sanji:** I gotta go shower etc, I’ll speak later :)

**[22:11] Zoro:** okay, see you :)

 

An image flickers onto his screen, and clicking on it he sees that it’s a mirror selfie of Sanji brushing his teeth. His toothbrush hangs from his mouth, and his free hand holds up a peace sign, and the blond looks sleepy and bedraggled. It’s cute, and Zoro smiles. He lifts up his phone, opening the app and using the camera to send one back, with his hood up and face hidden partially under the collar. 

Sending it, he feels blissfully happy for just a moment, until he remembers: he has to buy Sanji a present now.

What the hell was he going to get him?

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey if any of you aren't reading Midwinter Song you should go read that bc not only is it 50k+ of eventual zosan but its also hella good
> 
> or if you like Voltron Legendary Defender you can go check out my other fics :3
> 
> Thanks for sticking around!! Comments make me happy!


End file.
